LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



X 



LIFE'S EVERYDAYNESS 



PAPERS FOR WOMEN 



BY 

/ 

ROSE PORTER 




Fleming H. Revell Company, 



CHICAGO: NEW YORK: 

148 and 150 Madison St. | 112 Fifth Avenue. 

Publishers of Evangelical Literature. 






«' 



e 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the 
year 1893, by Fleming H. Revell Company, in the 
office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
All rights reserved 



a-'tf) 



CONTENTS. 



I. Life's Everydayness 7 

II. A Strong Tower 17 

III. Appropriating Blessings 29 

IV. Privilege — Duties 39 

V. Sympathy a Vocation 51 

VI. A Fragment of Daily Bread 59 

VII. Happy Homes 75 

VIII. Spiritual Insight Sy 

IX. The Story of a Story 101 

X. The Gospel of Circumstances 117 

XL The Holy Communion 127 

XII. Society Fibs, or the Story of a 

White Lie 137 

XIII. In the World: not of it 155 



I. 

LIFE'S EVERYDAYNESS. 



"Be Love your Light and Trust 
your Guide." 




LIFE'S EVERYDAYNESS. 

i. 

"The way to trust Christ is to know Christ, 1 " 
— Drum?nond. 

You ask me dear F to pass on to 

you some simple suggestions that I have 
found helpful in meeting the experiences 
linked with what you call " Life's Every- 
dayness." I infer by the words you mean 
the daily annoyances, perplexities, disap- 
pointments and discouragements which 
one feels hardly of sufficient importance 
to rank as trials. And yet, perhaps, no 
discipline is more useful than that af- 
forded by the friction of trifles, and no 
maxim is more true than the old saying, 
"No friction, no polish." 



8 2Life's JEver^tmpness 

But I will not linger to generalize. 
Your question is too personal. You ask 
for hints that will aid in your now imper- 
fect experience in rising daily nearer to 
the level of your high calling in Christ. 
You say, " How can I become a new 
creature in Christ?" In reply I can only 
tell what I think you already know — 
that your soul's life, your growth in 
grace, depends in a great measure on 
your knowledge of Christ. As an illus- 
tration of the knowledge I mean, I will 
recount a true story of a hospital 
nurse, and how she learned that while 
in a certain way, all christians know the 
Lord Christ, they do not know Him 
well enough to understand in its blessed 
fulness what He is, and what they may 
be by faith in Him. 

The nurse of whom I tell, Agnes 
Fraser, was a fine specimen of a Scotch 
woman. Her well-developed frame, her 
open countenance, and the pleasant 
mingling of ease and deference in her 



Xife's ]£\>er£&a£ness 



manner, inspired interest as well as con- 
fidence. Mrs. Talbot, the lady who 
needed Agnes' care, was immediately 
attracted by her; the orderly quiet way 
she went about her work pleased the 
old lady, who, by the way, had met with 
the accident which led to her acquaint- 
ance with Agnes through forgetfulness of 
her seventy odd years. As months of 
diminished suffering wore on, her injured 
limb needed friction, and Mrs. Talbot 
was ordered to town, and this hospital 
rubber was sought and found. For a 
day or two there was little conversation 
between Agnes and Mrs. Talbot, but on 
the third morning, as Agnes knelt by 
the lady's couch, she looked up with a 
smile, saying: 

"You have had a wonderful escape, 
at your age; it is wonderful this bone 
was not broken." 

"Yes, the Lord has been very good 
to me," Mrs. Talbot replied. 

At these words, again Agnes looked 



up, and there was a question in her gaze 
and a certain responsiveness, and yet it 
lacked that mysterious recognition of 
divine relationship which thrills hearts 
that know Christ like a meeting with 
kith and kin in a foreign land. And 
then followed a talk, during which 
Agnes, in her simple, straightforward 
way, outlined her history, ending the 
recital with a memory that caused her 
strong lips to quiver, while for a moment 
the clear blue eyes grew dim. After a 
brief silence, Mrs. Talbot said softly: 
" How near sorrow brings us to Jesus; 
for no one understands our hearts as 
well as He does. Do you believe this?" 

"Yes, in a sort of way," Agnes an- 
swered, and her voice was troubled, as 
she added, "but I never get any com- 
fort out of it." 

Mrs. Talbot's next words seemed 
strangely irrelevant: "You had a good, 
kind husband," she said, and without 
heeding Agnes' whispered, "indeed I 



had/' the old lady continued: " But he 
was not a real comfort to you until you 
knew him well enough to trust him, was 
he?" 

"Ah! but I did know him," Agnes 
made haste to answer, "and he was 
worth trusting," and big tears, warm 
from her wifely heart, hung upon her 
eyelids. And a woman's womanly love 
is such a dear, beautiful thing! 

You will have anticipated Mrs. Tal- 
bot's answer: "When you know the 
Lord Jesus well enough to trust Him, 
as you trusted your husband, you will 
find all the comfort you need." 

"But how can I know Christ thus?" 
Agnes asked eagerly. "Tell me, how 
can I know Him?" 

The very question you ask dear F 

repeated by this hard working woman — 
as it is by hundreds of hearts daily — not 
only among the poor and lowly, but 
among the rich and cultured. How can 
I know Christ with the knowledge that 



i2 Xtfe's TEvctybavness 

makes its possessor " patient with His 
patience, active with His activity, loving 
with His love." 

Mrs. Talbot told Agnes the surest 
way was to go to the Lord and ask Him 
to tell of a love — even His own — that 
will never fail, and which no one but 
Himself can unfold. Do you reply, as 
Agnes did, that you have often tried to 
do this, but you got nothing in return? 
Dear, is not the reason because you 
sought to find something in self to offer 
Him in exchange for the blessing you 
craved? You never will find anything 
in self. Self causes uneasiness, misgiv- 
ing and discouragement. Look away 
from self — look unto Jesus. Yes, look 
away from self, from all that is good and 
all that is evil in you. "Look from 
your standing in Christ to Christ Him- 
self. Look from the Bible to the author 
of it; from worship to the object wor- 
shiped; from service to the Master you 
serve. Look from heavenly gifts to the 



Xife's lEvcvybavness 13 

heavenly Giver, from the grace of God 
to the God of all grace. Look from the 
sorrows of the way to the Light that 
shines above. Look from self to the 
Lord Jesus, and in Jesus, you will see 
the face and learn the character of the 
Father." 

If you thus look unto Jesus dear 

F , you will soon find "old things 

have passed away " — u all things," your 
heart among them, " have become new." 
You will also find the compassion of 
your Lord will not fail. It is sufficient 
for life's everydayness. His mercy is 
"new every morning and fresh every 
night." Yes, truly. 

"New every morning is the love, 
Our wakening and uprising prove; 
Through sleep and darkness safely brought, 
Restored to life, and power and thought. 

New mercies, each returning day, 

Hover around us while we pray; 

New perils past, new sins forgiven, 

New thoughts of God, new hopes of Heaven. 

If on our daily course our mind 
Be set to hallow all we find, 



14 %ifc's lEverpfca^uess 

New treasures still, of countless price, 
God will provide for sacrifice." 

Meanwhile 

" Oh Lord, in Thy dear love, 
Help us this, and every day, 
To live more nearly as we pray." 









II. 

A STRONG TOWER. 




A STRONG TOWER. 

ii. 

" Father in Thy dear presence kneeling 
Our spirits yearn to feel Thy kindling love, 
Now make us strong, we need Thy deep revealing 
Of truth, and strength, and calmness from above." 

I propose to consider to-day dear 

F what you term the difficulty of 

prayer in connection with life's every- 
dayness. Certain it is that prayer fills 
an important place in daily life — so im- 
portant, in Bible language it is called 
"A Strong Tower, the righteous run- 
neth into it and is safe." 

Prayer is consecrated, also, by a sure 
promise of answer. Jesus said: " If ye 

shall ask anything in my name I will do 

17 



18 Xife's JEpersSapness 

it," But I will not tarry to enumerate 
the commands and promises linked with 
prayer. They strew the pages of Holy 
Scripture from beginning to end; you 
know them. And yet, you tell me, prayer, 
which should be a blessing, is in truth a 
trial. You say you have much to ask 
for. You try to fix your thought and to 
enter into harmony with the spirit of 
prayer, but even as you try a dullness 
creeps over you, or your mind wanders; 
you seem to have no control over your 
thoughts, until sometimes it almost ap- 
pears as though the very endeavor to 
pray dispersed thought, even as a sud- 
den wind scatters the leaves of autumn. 
Truly, these are grave troubles. I do 
not wonder, after such experiences, you 
call prayer a difficulty. Nevertheless, I 
ask — why a difficulty? What is prayer — 
prayer in the name of Jesus? Robert- 
son defines "the highest prayer, or com- 
munion with God, as a life of love." 
Robertson also tells us, "Prayer is the 



H Strong XTower 19 

communion of the mind with God, 
through which our will becomes at last 
merged into His will." These defini- 
tions seem to prove, dear F , that 

part of the difficulty of which you com- 
plain consists in a want of love and a 
want of submission. And surely, unless 
your petitions are infused with the spirit 
of childlike love, and emphasized by the 
signature of all true prayer — "Thy will, 
not mine" — you cannot expect to enter 
into the blessedness of prayer. Yes, 
truly it is the posture of the soul, the 
renunciation of the will — or rather "our 
wills being so united with God's that 
they are no longer two wills, but as one 
will that He looks at" which leads to 
the spiritual pasturage of which Christ 
said: "I am the door, by me if any 
man enter in, he shall go in and out and 
find pasture." But the statement of 
these blessed truths is in a certain way 
generalizing, and what you desire is 
practical help, and that the axe be laid 



20 %iics Bperp&a^ness 

unto the root of your difficulty. Hence 
I ask, does not one reason why prayer is 
unreal to you consist in the fact that 
when you pray your heart is full of self- 
consciousness? Do you not dwell on 
the solemnity of the act in which you are 
engaged, and attempt to rise to the 
occasion by feeding your mind on the 
thought of the greatness of God and the 
insignificance of man? My dear, "that 
is not prayer, but only an inflated 
reverie to which the thought of prayer 
may give rise." Neither does true 
prayer consist in much speaking or great 
effort. It is your heart God looks at. 
He sees what is there. He knows what 
you desire. "Aim at things, and your 
words will be right without aiming.' y 
He fully understands. You need only 
say, "Lord, help me! Vouchsafe, oh 
Lord, to keep me this day earnest in my 
efforts to serve Thee." That is prayer, 
most true prayer. He does not estimate 
its worth by its length or eloquence, but 



H Strong Uower 21 

by its sincerity. The mere sense of His 
loving you and understanding you, that 
too, is prayer, for it is the losing self in 
Him. Do this, and you will find, like 
David of old, that you can say: " In 
the day when I cried Thou answered me, 
and strengthened me with strength in 
my soul. , ' Yes, you will find answers 
coming to your desires although they 
may not come in the way and form you 
asked. Meanwhile, if for a time the full 
blessedness of this sweet assurance of 
an answer of peace be denied you, be 
not disheartened; rest in God's love. 
Remember, also, your prayer does not 
wing its Heavenward way alone, it is 
offered for you by the Intercessor, and 
His intercession has also this further 
perfection — it is the prayer not only of 
Divine love and knowledge, but of per- 
fect human sympathy, for "we have 
not an High Priest who cannot be 
touched with the feeling of our infirmi- 
ties, but One who was in all points 



22 Xife's Bpers&asness 

tempted, like as we are, yet without 
sin." And it is out of this perfect love, 
knowledge and sympathy He per- 
petually intercedes for each of us 
according to our trial and our need. 
Think how free our access is, through 
Jesus Christ, to the throne of grace and 
him that sitteth thereon! " In Him we 
have boldness and access with confi- 
dence by the faith of Him." As Dr. 
William M. Taylor so earnestly, yet 
simply expresses it, "No matter who 
we are or where we are, we can get into 
the presence of God when we choose. 
In the closet, on the crowded street, in 
the railroad car, on the deck of the ship, 
or in the solitude of the mountain side — 
in all time of our tribulation, of what- 
ever sort it be, we can get to the ear of 
the Hearer of Prayer in the full assur- 
ance that He will attend to our cry and 
give us that which He sees that we 
require. No recent application of mod- 
ern science to the business necessities of 



H Strong Uower 23 

our time is to me more remarkable than 
the telephone, by means of which we 
can converse with a friend who is to us 
invisible, and every time I hear it em- 
ployed it seems as wonderful to me as it 
did before. But the earthly telephone 
is stationary; I must go where it is fixed 
before I can employ it. Here, however, 
in prayer, I can carry about within my 
heart a telephone through which at any 
moment, and from any place, I can cry 
right into the ear of God and get an 
answer from Him." "Let us, therefore, 
come boldly unto the throne of grace; 
let us resolve to make full proof of the 
privilege of prayer." Let us seek and 
"obtain mercy and find grace to help in 
time of need." 

In view of all this dear F , do you 

not feel that if you still find difficulty in 
prayer it is because you pray with a 
sense of resting on the merits of Christ, 
as a shield between you and God's dis- 
pleasure over your sins, rather than 



24 Xife's JEvevybayncss 

offering the prayer which realizes 
through Christ's love " sins are blotted 
out and remembered no more." 

The first manner of prayer is a state 
of mind which fills the heart with a con- 
sciousness of its own guilt and the holi- 
ness of God, but it gives no sense of 
justification and peace; while the second 
is the sweet assurance of faith found in 
believing that He is, and that "He is a 
rewarder of them that diligently seek 
Him." And remember, love, — the key- 
note of prayer — springs out of this faith 
and is nourished by it. And love and 
faith are wings of the soul, they can rise 
above the limitations of earth into the 
knowledge which reveals that " all 
things are possible to the love of God." 

In the light of that love words of mine 
are not needed to show you that many 
of your troubles regarding prayer, and 
the place it fills in life's everydayness, 
have come from your efforts to under- 
stand it by the mind rather than the 



H Strong XCower 25 

heart; something you cannot do, for St. 
Paul tells us, it is not with the reason, 
but with the heart man believeth. 

And now I end as I began, by telling 
you, the only way to find rest and peace 
of soul is by "looking unto Jesus, the 
author and finisher of our faith," by 
whom we approach God Our Father. 

Meanwhile I bid you also, 

' ' Arise and sing, 
Mount, but be sober on the wing; 
Mount up, for Heaven is won by prayer, 
Be sober, for thou art not there." 



III. 

APPROPRIATING BLESSINGS. 




APPROPRIATING BLESSINGS. 
in. 

xi The child- like faith that asks not sight, 
Waits not for wonder or for sign, 

Believes, because it loves aright — 

Shall see things greater, things divine ," 

" God's biddings are enablings." This 
truth, so quaintly expressed by an old 
writer, gives such promise of success 

following effort, I quote it dear F 

by way of an encouraging preface to my 
reply to the difficulty you find in the 
performance of the three very important 
every-day duties you mention. Accord- 
ing to your list they read: "Reading the 
Bible, remembering the poor, aiding 

others in their works of mercy." Yes, 

29 



30 Xife's J£t>erpfca£ness 

surely I am right in saying, those words 
hold the promise of victory, for what- 
ever the Lord bids you do He will 

enable you to do it, if . Do you 

sigh at the sight of that little if? Do 
3^ou say: " Always there is an if, and ifs 
are so discouraging." And yet they 
need not be. In proof of this I beg you 
to read thoughtfully the fifth chapter 
of Luke, beginning at the 18th verse 
and pausing at the 23rd. You observe 
the blessings conferred on the palsied 
man were pardon and power to walk, 
and our Lord seemed to say they were 
equally easy to grant. Observe, also, 
the man did not rise and walk by any 
power of his own. Yet he did rise and 
walk. What do you suppose produced 
the effort to obey? I can almost hear 
your quick reply: "He believed the 
Lord would give him power to do what 
He, the Lord commanded. " Yes, it 
was just that. And now ponder the 
story a minute, and straightway I think 



Hpproptiating Blessings 31 

you will discover the if'm the history of 
this palsied man. Did he say, "I can- 
not walk, 1 am palsied?" No, not a 
word. Ah! now you have found it — the 
if is in the faith. He believed, and then 
all things became possible. "Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt 
be saved." Think of all that saved in- 
cludes; saved from everything that 
grieves and dishonors the Lord. Saved 
from doubts, difficulties and temptations, 
even those which belong to the lesser 
details of every-day life. And they, 
strange as it seems, are wont to be the 
very ones which try us most, and for 
which we most need help, for little 
things tell on domestic life more than 
great ones. Have you ever noticed our 
Lord's tender and special care for the 
seemingly unimportant? Search these ex* 
amples out, and they will help as well as 
interest you. And after finding them, 
remember to appropriate them, for the 
appreciation of gospel truth is but half 



32 Xife's Ev>er£&apness 

a blessing until united with appropria- 
tion. There is profound meaning in the 
fact that Christ's robe — " the robe of 
righteousness " — is seamless. We can- 
not rend and wrap ourselves in a 
part of it. It must be all or noth- 
ing. 

Do you ask what I mean by appro- 
priation? For answer I copy an illus- 
tration I read not long ago, for I know 
of none that will serve so well to en- 
force my idea. " If the organs of your 
body are in a healthy condition they 
appropriate — technically assimilate — 
your food for its true purpose, to form 
and nourish your blood, flesh, muscles, 
bones. If the powers of your mind are 
in health, they appropriate knowledge 
in the same manner, producing new 
combinations, issuing in fresh thoughts 
and feelings. Higher still is the soul's 
appropriation of Christ, for exactly corres- 
ponding soul purposes. The Lord Jesus 
calls Himself the "Bread of God," and 



appropriating Blessings 33 

uses the same illustration: " He that 
eateth me, even he shall live by me," so 
that to appropriate Him is not only to 
live by Him, but to grow into fuller 
development of that life in the propor- 
tion of our appropriation. " 

This thought of fuller development 
leads us back to your failure in finding 
pleasure and profit in reading the Bible, 
for, if you truly desire growth in grace, 
prayerful reading of Holy Scripture is 
one of the ways by which you can attain 
it. Remember Christ said: "Search 
the Scriptures . . . and they are 
they which testify of Me." 

And St. Paul declared, "All Scrip- 
ture is given by inspiration of God, and 
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for 
correction, for instruction in righteous- 
ness that the man of God may be per- 
fect; thoroughly furnished with all good 
works." 

Those last words explain in a way, 
why, you find it hard to obey our Lord's 



34 Xife's JEvevybaynzss 

command to remember the poor. But, 
before we come to that difficulty, let us 
seek the cause of your lack of interest 
in Bible study. 

Is it not partly due to a desultory 
manner of reading? Do you not choose 
the parts you think you will like best? 
Do you not read a little here and a little 
there? By doing this, and by taking 
verses apart from the context, you often 
lose much of the meaning of the Bible, 
and frequently you receive a false 
impresssion of its meaning. Then, too, 
many helpful portions are never read. 
A better way is to have some plan in 
reading; for example, take a book of the 
Bible and get a knowledge of it, and 
read and re-read it, and as you read 
God will reveal Himself if you have 
faith. Remember, " when self suggests 
difficulties, faith conquers them." 

Regarding a plan in reading, 1 
know no rule more helpful than the one 
given in the " Calendar Lessons of Holy 



appropriating JBiesstngs 35 

Scripture for the Christian Year." If 
you follow its guidance you will read 
the Old Testament once every year, the 
New Testament three times, and the 
Psalms twelve times. You will find, 
also, how tenderly and wonderfully each 
lesson and each Psalm will yield some 
rich word of grace, comfort and encour- 
agement peculiarly fitted to your felt 
daily need. And this experience will 
grow more and more full and blessed 
with every new day. For daily your 
power of perception will increase, and 
you will be better able to appreciate the 
precious truth as the very portion given 
to you for profit and consolation. 

You need not fear that because of 
repetition this system will degenerate into 
a mere form; it will become less and 
less so, and you will become more de- 
pendent on the dear habit, until it 
becomes a blessed part of the daily 
grace for which you ask when you pray 
for "daily bread." 



36 Xtfe's JBvctybavness 

I have left but brief space for your 
difficulty regarding the poor, which I 
think will grow less if you add a hyphen 
to the word duty, as you use it in con- 
nection with your obligation as a Chris- 
tian to remember the needy. I mean 
think of it as a privilege-duty or a duty- 
privilege. 

Certainly it is a high privilege; a 
service so blessed, our Lord said, "Ye 
do it unto Me." And surely if you truly 
believe in His love, if you feel how 
much He has done for you, you will long 
to do for His dear ones — "the large 
family He has left on earth to be tended, 
and fed, and cared for." 

In our next leaflet we will consider 
the many ways by which you can render 
this blessed service "In His Name." 

Meanwhile dear F remember: 

" It is good to spend and be spent; 
It is good to watch and to pray, 
. . . " For amid all life's quests 
There seems but worthy one— to do men good; 
And, 

It matters not how long we live, but how." 



IV. 
PRIVILEGE-DUTIES. 




PRIVILEGE -DUTIES. 

IV. 

"They serve God well who serve His creatures " 

Without prelude dear F , I re- 
sume the subject we began to consider 
in the last leaflet. And, I quote from 
a sermon by the late Phillips Brooks, 
while I bid you "listen to the great 
modern gospel of work which comes to 
you in every breeze." I also bid you in 
his words, "Do not let it be the shallow, 
superficial story that it is to many mod- 
ern ears. Work is everything, or work 
is nothing, according to the Lord we 
work for. Work for God. Let yourself 
do no work which you cannot hold up 

in His sight and say: "Lord this is 

39 



4° %iWs JEver^Dapness 

Thine!" and then your work is indeed 
noble. 

But it is time I suggested several im- 
portant factors in this most blessed min- 
istry which we are wont to call " Re- 
membering the Poor." I need hardly 
linger to remind you our Lord commands 
us to render this service. And if you 
have a true and living sense of His love 
for yourself; if your love to Him is warm 
and earnest, you will feel that the wants 
of the needy people who are so dear to 
Him ought to claim a very large portion 
of your love and your thoughts, and you 
will seek to discover means to help and 
cheer and bless them. You tell me you 
recognize this, but how to accomplish 
the work is the perplexity. Tact is a 
great help; but you say "tact is a gift." 
Yes, but it is a grace also. As a gift 
you may not possess it, but as a grace 
you can strive to acquire it. Neverthe- 
less, — as is the case with many another 
effort to obtain grace — as you seek to 



privilege Duties. 41 

cultivate tact you will meet temptations; 
— like almost everything, it has two 
sides, a good and a bad; for light and 
darkness are never far apart. The spec- 
ial danger you need to guard against as 
you endeavor to attain tact, is insin- 
cerity. In your desire to make things 
pleasant, and to smooth over the uncom- 
fortable, "it is so easy to overstep the 
boundary of truth, or at least to curve 
that straight line of limitation/ 7 

If this danger is avoided we can 
scarcely overstate the practical value of 
tact. It is such a sunshine maker in the 
midst of the friction of life's everyday- 
ness. I have heard it defined as "a 
lubricating oil, by virtue of which need- 
ful contact is guarded against degener- 
ating into sore rubs and grazes." 

The surest way of acquiring the best 
tact is found by letting your knowledge 
of trial deepen and expand your sympa- 
thies for, and with others. Remember, 
also, in all your efforts to aid the poor 



42 Xtfe's ]£per£fcapness 

and sorrowing, to "do it all as unto the 
Lord, and not as unto men." That you 
can do this Christ Himself gives blessed 
assurance, for He said: "Inasmuch as 
ye do it unto one of the least of these 
my brethren, ye do it unto me." Pon- 
der these words, and in the solemn 
presence of the thoughts they suggest 
you will, I think, consecrate henceforth 
every act, every effort unto Him ; and 
if that consecration is the keynote of 
3 T our service, obedience will soon be- 
come its harmony. 
Meanwhile 

" Keep on sowing, 
God will cause the seed to grow 

Faster than your knowing; 
Nothing e'er is sown in vain 

If, His voice obeying, 
You look upward for the rain, 

And falter not in praying." 

As a follower of the Lord Jesus, every- 
thing that helps on His work should 
have the deepest interest for you, and 
thus you will not confine your efforts to 
the limited circle within reach of your 



privilege 2>uties 43 

personal observation, but your interest 
will include an ever-growing interest in 
all works of mercy that are stamped 
with the royal seal '-'In His Name." 
You will especially feel thus toward the 
societies and institutions which are try- 
ing to accomplish work for God in quiet, 
orderly, simple, earnest ways. As you 
feel this interest you will discover the 
more you look out for opportunities of 
alleviating sorrow and rendering aid, the 
more the opportunities will increase; and 
the more will the power of helping, and 
the desire to help increase also; and 
ways will open which, until you ear- 
nestly and prayerfully sought them, 
were unseen. Nor is this all. You will 
find thus wider, fuller opportunities for 
work, till it becomes increasingly a part 
of yourself, your thoughts, your prayers. 
Yes, truly, " work for God takes gradual 
possession of a man, until the thought 
of self has passed away. It seems to be 
dead, and only wakens into conscious 



44 %itc's jEver^apness 

life again when the glad salutation greets 
it at the end, "Well done good and 
faithful servant; thou hast been faithful; 
enter into thy joy." 

Dear , will these words greet yon 

and me when we pass from life here to 
life There? 

I return to the assertion that knowl- 
edge of trial expands sympathy. Hence 
while you may have no actual knowledge 
— through experience — of the discipline 
of "small means/' you have known 
other trials which will enable you to 
understand and to sympathize with this 
form of trouble. 

The frank kindly expression of this 
sympathy will greatly add to your power 
of usefulness, and remember it does not 
need words to express sympathy; a look, 
a hand-clasp, a tender manner can re- 
veal it. You will soon learn this if you 
try to live up to the command, "Bear 
ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill 
the law of Christ." 



privilege Duties, 45 

This is especially true in the matter 
of giving, so much depends on the way 
in which it is done. And one should 
always be so careful to distinguish be- 
tween worthy and unworthy poverty, for 
there is a poverty that is rich toward 
God. You know the kind I mean, the 
brave struggle with adverse circum- 
stances — which are met cheerfully — in 
which there is no bitterness, and which 
teach endurance, self-dependence, and 
best of all lessons, self-renunciation. I 
think one's whole afterlife is made easier 
and more blessed by having known such 
a discipline in youth. 

I pass on now to your question regard- 
ing some of the simple ways by which 
one may gain access to the hearts of 
those they meet every day. Among 
them God's dear gift of beauty — flowers 
— fill a large place. The language of 
flowers is so universally understood, and 
it is always so gentle and uplifting. 
How can it be otherwise when 



46 Xife's E\>er£i>a£ness 

"God made the flowers to beautify 
The earth, and cheer man's careful mood; 
And he is happiest who hath power 
To gather wisdom from a flower, 
And wake his heart in every hour 
To pleasant gratitude." 
Then, too, flowers always seem to re- 
peat the assurance of our Lord's love 
and providing care. If ever you are 
tempted to forget this, " consider the 
lilies of the field." 

The lending and giving of books is 
another help in gaining influence. The 
mere fact that you long to share your 
mental enjoyment is redolent of fellow- 
ship and good-will. Another important 
way of helping young people, whatever 
their social condition consists in guiding 
them in their efforts to find an object in 
life. The best way to do this is by 
making them feel, through your example, 
that "activity in obedience to God; 
work done for Him and His eternal pur- 
pose; duty conscious of Him and for- 
getful of the doer's self, and so enthu- 
siastic, spontaneous, is the field where 



privilege duties 47 

character is grown, and there is at once 
accomplished the cultivation of the 
worker's soul and the building of some 
corner of the kingdom of God." The 
work that attains this blessed result is 
bounded by the spirit which shines like 
a star in quaint old George Herbert's 
lines. Hence, by way of l'envoi, I copy 
them for you dear F : 

11 Teach me, my God and King, 

In all things Thee to see, 
And what I do in anything 

To do it as for Thee. 

All may of Thee partake; 

Nothing can be so mean 
Which with this tincture — for Thy sake — 

Will not grow bright and clean. 

A servant with this clause 

Makes drudgery divine; 
Who sweeps a room as for Thy love 

Makes that and th' action fine." 



V. 
SYMPATHY A VOCATION. 




SYMPATHY A VOCATION. 

v. . 

You ask, dear F , how you can 

learn the secret of true sympathy. You 
say it is easy enough to sympathize with 
persons who suit your taste, and with 
trials that are akin to your own. Then 
you add: " But is not this, in a certain 
sense, one form of self-love and selfish- 
ness?" I reply: "Certainly; if thoughts 
of yourself run so parallel with your 
thoughts of others that by sympathizing 
with them you seem, as it were, to sym- 
pathize with yourself. Nevertheless, it 
is through our own knowledge of sorrow 
and pain that the power of true sym- 
pathy is developed. " This was Christ's 
own qualification for it, " and as He was 
"perfected through suffering," so He 

perfecteth us. 

51 



52 Spmpatbs H IDocatf on 

It is strange, in a world so full of sor- 
row, that sympathy is a grace which 
needs to be cultivated; and yet it does, 
for it is not a natural gift. It is useless 
to look for it in ourselves; we will not 
find it. In truth, we must seek it out of 
self; we must create the atmosphere by 
following the example of the Holy One, 
of perfect sympathy, and then, diffuse it. 
The way to do this is simple and yet 
difficult. St. Paul gives the recipe in 
the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians, 
and the more you ponder and enter into 
the spirit of that guidance, the deeper 
and truer will be your capacity for sym- 
pathy, the essence of which is charity. 
But it is a grace which will need daily 
and hourly renewal; it demands also 
constant exercise, and the manner of 
exercising it consists in not refusing it to 
any one. This often requires bodily, as 
well as spiritual and mental self-denial. 
Days come when we seem to do scarcely 
anything save attending to the interests 



Xife's Bersfcwess 53 

of others. And these interests are not 
necessarily great trials, neither are they 
necessarily connected with matters of 
special importance. No, they may seem 
to us mere trifles, save as we remember 
that nothing is a trifle which either tries 
or affects another. Consider, also, that 
if we refuse to show interest in little 
things, our friends, and those who turn 
to us for sympathy, may withhold the 
greater. And thus, by our own act, we 
may miss the blessing and the joy that 
comes from helping and comforting 
others in their hours of sore need, in 
this matter of sympathy with the ma- 
terial, and seemingly insignificant, our 
Lord has not left us without guidance. 
He did not limit His sympathy to special 
and spiritual needs. He did not merely 
teach and counsel, He fed also. He 
took thought for bodies as well as souls. 
And His Gospel bids, " Go thou and do 
likewise." 

Just here I want to remind you that 



54 SsmpatbB H IDocattan 

one's power of expressing sympathy is 
greatly augmented by the cultivation of 
a sympathizing manner and voice, but 
never forget gracious manners, and kind 
tones are worthless, if acts and words do 
not correspond. In the expression of 
sympathy, as in the exercise of all other 
graces, the foundation must be truth, 
and then there is no limit to the power 
of a word of tenderness. 

It is wonderful how often, long after 
we have forgotten word and act, we meet 
them again. Sometimes I think no verse 
in the Bible is emphasized with the force 
of frequent illustration as constantly as 
the promise, " Cast thy bread upon the 
waters, for thou shalt find it after many 
days/' But if it is not your happy lot 
to be thus rewarded here on earth, you 
will be in the blessed Hereafter; for not 
a tear of compassion, not a smile of 
cheer, not a word of love is forgotten by 
Him who commands His followers tft< 
weep with those who weep, and to re- 



Xife's JEerpfca^ness 55 

joice with those who rejoice. And now a 

word of warning dearF . Remember, 

grief is as truly a possession as anything 
else, hence the deep pity and the warm 
sympathy we may feel for others in their 
hours of anguish, gives us no right to 
handle, and touch the wounded place 
with any claim to dictate or control. 
Our Saviour teaches this most tenderly. 
He never forces an entrance. Remem- 
ber He said, " Behold I stand at the 
door and knock." Remember, also, 
when hearts are crushed by the weight 
of sorrow, quiet sympathy is the safest 
and almost always the most acceptable; 
and one cannot go far amiss by the pres- 
sure of a hand, and the whispered words, 
"God knows, He loves and He pities." 
But enough. If you really desire to 
learn the secret of sympathy, the only 
way is by looking unto Jesus. He and 
only He, can give you the wisdom and 
the tenderness needed for the blessed 
ministry of consolation. 



56 5£mpatb£ a IDocafion 

"Let the same mind be in you that 
was in Christ Jesus." And then He 
will give you deeper knowledge of His 
own sympathy, and thus you will in 
very truth be able to follow in His foot- 
steps. And His sympathy "passeth 
knowledge." 



VI. 

A FRAGMENT OF DAILY 
BREAD. 




A FRAGMENT OF DAILY BREAD 
VI. 

I propose dear F — to devote this 
leaflet to an experience told me years ago 
by an English aunt. As far as I can I 
will give you the story in her own words; 
and as you read the simple record you 
will know why I call it one of the frag- 
ments of "daily bread " which we are 
bidden to gather up for the sake of the 
spiritual nourishment they contain. That 
you may grasp the spirit of love which 
ruled my aunt's daily life I pause, to tell 
you, she had a warm heart, and knew 
how to find the best and noblest in every 
character, and to take advantage of it 
for good. She believed "in every 
human being, unless he be completely 

hardened, there is still a bright spot, and 
59 



60 H ^fragment of Bails Break 

one point of susceptibility for that which 
is good. This is the point by which to 
take hold of him and raise him, so that 
the light which is in him may gradually 
dispel the darkness. If God in His 
holiness is so long-suffering toward sin- 
ners, should not we be so too?" But 
enough, it is time I passed on to the 
story. " Would not to-morrow do as 
well?" "If you please,ma'am, but I am 
uneasy about him, I am sore afraid he 
don't know the way." 

"I know nothing about the man. 
What is the matter with him, Andrew?" 

"Looks like decline, ma'am, and I 
expect he'd be uncommon glad to see 
you; he says he sort of knows you." 

"Knows me! James Finch you say 
is his name. Why, I never heard of 
him." 

Such a pleasant sense of home per- 
vaded the room in which this conversa- 
tion occurred. The heavy folds of the 
window curtains had just fallen over the 



Xife's Bver^a^ness 61 

twilight of a lovely May evening. The 
fire-light — for it was cold enough 
for a bright fire — cast its ruddy glow 
over the massive furniture. A shaded 
lamp stood on the small table, illumi- 
nating the pages of an open book on 
which Mrs. IPs hand rested, as she lis- 
tened to her grey-haired serving-man's 
request. She knew it meant nothing 
less than that she must leave all this 
indoor comfort, and accompany him to 
the cottage the sick man now called 
home. And, because moods change as 
quickly as life's shifting tides turn, as 

Mrs. U realized the import of her 

faithful butler's words, the cheerful 
glow seemed to fade out of the fire-light, 
while the pleasant anticipation of an 
hour's undisturbed reading of a favorite 
book died out of her mind; and, although 
she was, as I have told you, a truly good 
woman, for a moment she felt it some- 
what hard that she should be thus sum- 
moned by a duty which demanded, not 



62 h f ragment of 2>ail£ Breafc 

merely a tangible gift, but the giving, 
also, of her personal pleasure. Never- 
theless, five minutes later she was walk- 
ing towards the sick man's cottage, 
closely followed by Andrew. 

They found the invalid crouching over 
a tiny fire, with a look on his wan face 
that rebuked Mrs. U's desire to delay 
the visit until the next day. 

"I am afraid you are very ill," she 
said kindly, adding: " My good Andrew 
thought you would be glad to seeme." 

"Indeed I am ma'am; I have been a 
hankering to for six weeks back, for you 
be no stranger to me, ma'am, and Mr. 
Andrew was right." 

"If I am no stranger, I fear I must 
have forgotten you," Mrs. U re- 
plied. 

Something like a smile lit up the man's 
pale countenance as he answered: "May 
be you didn't take no notice of me 
ma'am, but I knows you. Good reason, 
too, for your words have bided with me 



ever since. It was along of the end of 
March, a Sunday morning. You was a 
walking pretty fast with some ladies, 
and little Miss was along with you. I 
was sauntering down the lane a swingin' 
in my hand a bunch of elder in bud, and 
little Miss, a seeing it, just dropped 
behind, and says she: ' Please give me 
that pretty branch, kind man.' I was 
mighty pleased to give it, but you a 
hearing what the young one said, turned, 
and says you, ' No you must not give 
my little Mary your pretty green branch. ' 
' Lawks, ma'am,' says I, 'it aint no sort 
of value to me,' and then you smiled, 
and more talk followed ; and afore you 
said good day, says you: 'I hope you 
know the Lord Jesus/ And when I 
shook my head you looked real troubled, 
you did; i I am so sorry for you/ says 
you, < a knowin' Him would make you 
so happy.' Then the ladies and little 
Miss wanted you, and you had to go, 
and I stood still there in the lane looking: 



64 H f raiment of H>attg Break 

after you and a thinkin' how you said 
the Lord Jesus was always along with 
you, and I said, says I, ' she must be 
uncommon comfortable if He's always 
with her." 

A long pause followed. When James 
Finch spoke again, something like a sob 
sounded in his voice: "I knows some- 
thing," he said, "of the way folks say 
you're to seek the Lord, and I under- 
stood what you meant, ma'am; and I 
have been a seeking Him ever since, but 
I can't find Him no how." 

Softly Mrs. U asked: "What 

hinders?" 

"Lawks, ma'am, if you only knowed 
what a wicked feller I be," James re- 
plied. 

' ' Jesus knows, " Mrs. U answered, 

" and He loves sinners." 

" As bad as me, do you think ma'am?" 

"Quite as bad." And Mrs. U 

uttered the words without hesitation. 

" I can't make it out," James said, 



%itc'5 Bverp&apness 65 

with a sigh. "Why, a ladylike you 
would be ashamed to sit alongside of 
me, if you knowed how bad I be." 

Jame's mind was filled with wonder as 

Mrs. U said : "Jesus would love to sit 

beside you. When He was on earth 
He received sinners, and He likes me 
to come and see you and tell you He 
loves you." 

'Tis all a mystery/' sadly James 
murmured. 

"It was a mystery to me once/' 
Mrs. U answered. 

"Lawks, was it ma'am; and might 
I be so bold as to ask how you got out 
of it?" 

"Certainly I will tell you, James. 
I just went to Jesus and asked Him 
how He could love such a sinner as I 
was. " 

"Whatever did He say?" 

"You must not think me unkind, 

James, ,, Mrs. U answered, "if I 

do not reply to that question, I want you 



66 h fragment of 2>atls 3Brea& 

to do as I did, just go and ask Him 
yourself. He has such a wonderful way 
of telling about His own love." 

And Mrs. U took from her pocket 

a little Testament and handed it to 
James, saying : " I have turned down 
the page at the 3rd of John, and I have 
marked the 16th verse; I want you to 
read it, and then tell the Lord Jesus 
what you think about it, and when I 
come again you will have much to tell 
me too." 

As Mrs. U joined Andrew, who 

had waited outside the cottage for her, 
she did not need to ask what he had 
been doing while she had been talking 
with James Finch. The look on the • 
faithful serving-man's face told with- 
out words that he had been speaking 
to God. 

The same upward look respon- 
ded to Mrs. U , when, as they 

reached the home door she lingered to 
thank Andrew for having suggested the 



SLife's lErerp&apness 67 

visit. As he touched his hat in ac- 
knowledgment a sort of half-ashamed, 
half-grateful expression lit up his face, 
and gave it the charm that outstrips 
even the highest refinement of civili- 
zation Just as sometimes true poetry 
flashes its light best through unculti- 
vated mediums. 

A few days later Mrs. U again 

entered the sick man's room. Poor 
James! His struggle was a hard one, 
the searching power of the Holy Spirit 
was upon him, " convincing him of 
sin," and the sin of delay had taken 
such hold of his mind. 

" I have heard the way of salvation 
explained time after time, ma'am," he 
said, " but you see I would not lay 
hold when I was a well man, and now 
I can't nohow." 

This was his cry over and over. Not 
until Mrs. U — 's third visitdid he catch 
a gleam of the peace of leaving sin with 
the Lord Jesus Christ, who forgives sin. 



68 Xife's JEperp&apness 

The dawn of this peace came as Mrs. 
U told him of her own early ex- 
perience. 

" Would you like to know, " she asked, 
" how my father helped me to under- 
stand the blessed gospel?" 

" Aye ma'am/' James answered. 

" Listen then. He was very ill, I was 
sitting up with him one long winter 
night. Sitting close to his side clasp- 
ing his dear hand, and singing softly 
to quiet him to sleep, when he opened 
his clear gray eyes, drew me closer, and 
said: ' My child, Jesus Christ came 
into the world to save sinners. I am 
a sinner, therefore He came to save 
me.'" 

As Mrs. U uttered those last 

words, the stillness in the room was so 
great the rustling of a leaf might have 
been heard, and almost noiselessly she 
left James. She went away to pray 
that peace might come to the stricken 
soul. And it did. 



H fragment ot S>aiip JSreafc 69 

The next morning Mrs. U again 

stood by James Finch's side, and, oh, 
the glad smile, the warm grip of the 
hand with which he greeted her as he 
said : " I see the way ma'am, plain 
like it was writ in letters of gold. I 
am a sinner, and the Lord came to 
save me, He did. Bless Him for it! 
I am that glad, that I am right down 
forced to cry just like a baby. I have 
been looking out of the window for 
you all day long, in such a hurry I 
have been to tell you ma'am." 

After a brief silence Mrs. U said : 

" Now we can praise the Lord together, 
James, and that is a great joy. We 
are both sinners, but both washed in 
His blood. Is it not so James?" 

" Aye, aye, ma'am. I have been a 
praising Him ever since I got hold of 
them words of your good father's. I 
don't feel to have nothing to say to-day 
but praise to Him. I never did see 
such a thing as this salvation. I could 



7o Xife'a ]£\>er^apness 

not have believed it was done like that # 
I said to my wife when you sent din- 
ner for me this morning, says I, " Why, 
Molly, 'tis just like this here dinner." 
You see, ma'am, you had it cooked 
and sends it, and the wife she stands 
it on the table here close to my hand, 
and I have nothing to do but to snap 
it up. Dearie me, and the Lord's just 
done it all like that, and I have noth- 
ing to do but to snap it up and bless 
Him for it." 

And James laid his head back on 
his chair with a look of grateful rest 
that would have been disturbed by 
anything more than a sympathetic hand 
laid on his, and the softly repeated 
words of the familiar hymn : 

" Rock of Ages, cleft for me! 

Let me hide myself in Thee. 

Let the water and the blood, 

From Thy wounded side that flowed, 

Be of sin the double cure; 

Save me Lord and make me pure. 

Nothing in my hand I bring, 
Simply to Thy cross I cling; 



H fragment of Bails JSreaD . 7 1 

Naked, come to Thee for dress; 
Helpless, look to Thee for grace; 
Vile I to the Fountain fly, 
Wash me Saviour or I die!" 



VII. 

HAPPY HOMES. 







^f^g 






«lw^ 










Bf>IJ^»vi 


5§taCT=e; 


t^P 


5fv& 






llSe^ 












&S&3 



HAPPY HOMES. 

VII. 

You asked for suggestions regarding 
home life and how to make it happy. I 
preface my reply dear F — by a hint or 
two from Charles Kingsley's plan for the 
ordering of a home. 

He writes: "We must have a regular 
rule of life, not so as to become a law, 
but a custom. Family prayers before 
breakfast, then attention to household 
matters. " Other rules follow which are 
only applicable to a clergyman's family, 
and then come several useful in any 
home. For example. " In the evening 
we will read and draw, cultivate music, 
and feed the intellect and fancy. We 
must devote some time on Monday 
morning to casting up our weekly bills 

and accounts, and make it a rule never 

75 • 



76 Xife's jSvctybnyncss 

to mention them, if possible, at any other 
time and never to talk of household 
matters unless urgent in the evening. " 
" We must pray for a spirit of order and 
regularity and economy in the least as 
well as in great things." 

Presently he adds: " This is a very 
homely letter, but not an outward one, 
for all the business I have talked of has 
a spiritual meaning; and if we can but 
keep alive a spiritual meaning in every 
little action, we shall have no need to 
write poetry, our life will be a real 
poem/' 

Another suggestion which I think you 
will find helpful dear F — is the hunting 
out the texts in the Bible about masters 
and servants, to form rules upon them. 
And our rules we will alter and improve 
upon as Kingsley says, as we find out 
more and more of the true relation in 
which we ought to stand to those whom 
God has placed under us. " I feel more 
and more that the principle of consider- 



1bapp£ Ibomes 77 

ing a servant as a trader, who sells you 
a certain amount of work for a certain 
sum of money is a devil's principle, and 
that we must have none of it, and 
return as far as we can to the patriarchal 
spirit toward them." 

" And religion, that is truth, shall be the 
only thing in our home. All things must 
be made to tend to it: and if they can- 
not be made to tend to God's glory, the 
belief in, and knowledge of the spiritual 
world, and the duties and ties of 
humanity, they must be turned out of 
doors as part of the world." It is thus 
Kingsley wrote his wife on beginning 
home life. No wonder their home was 
happy. But it is time I turned to the 
question regarding the children of your 
household. They are just starting on 
another school year and "what is the 
limit of intellectual education?" you ask. 
"Is it not the capacity of the child ?* 
I answer. Certainly each child must be 
trained according to its own special in- 



78 %ifc's jEvevybayness 

dividuality and capacity. The parents 
part is to make the most of what the 
child has, and this is a work that begins 
before the time of school-room and 
teacher. How is this " most " to be dis- 
covered ? " By close observation, care- 
ful discrimination and judicious experi- 
ment. " This is the reply a wise teacher 
once made to this question. As for the 
beginning of the education which dates 
in the nursery, even the mere fact that 
the room is prettily arranged helps to 
train a child's taste. 

"Do you think a baby notices such 
things?" 

"No, perhaps not, as you, or the older 
children do, but at the same time it 
makes the little creature accustomed to 
neat, tasteful ways, just as even a mite 
of a child becomes accustomed to clean 
hands and is uncomfortable when they 
are soiled. And for this reason I urge 
you to be careful in your choice of the 
pictures you hang on the walls of the 



1bapp£ Ibomes 79 

nursery and the childrens' rooms. Let 
them be pretty, and suggestive, and talk 
to the little ones about them; thus they 
will learn to enjoy beautiful things; and 
never show even the youngest silly 
pictures. 

And now you ask for a word about 
discipline. Happy the mother who can 
hold an even balance between the strict 
and the lenient, for perhaps on this 
ability depends the characters of her 
children more than on any other part of 
her conduct. To accomplish this, one 
must inspire the confidence of love by 
kindness, and at the same time secure 
obedience by adhering steadily to 
principles, or rules once laid down. 
And one thing you must be very careful 
about, you must enforce obedience al- 
ways not merely sometimes. If a child is 
sure she will be put on a chair for a few 
minutes every time she disobeys, it will 
help her more than if she thinks she 
may be put on for an hour. 



80 Xife's J£\>eri?Dapness 

Be sure also, as soon as a child can 
understand that you explain the highest 
reason for obedience, " You must obey 
because your mother wishes it, and be- 
cause God has commanded you to obey 
her." It is a blessed part of child-life 
that the young heart responds so quickly 
and lovingly to the thought of God. It 
takes all bitterness away from punish- 
ment when a child really feels that a 
mother must make her little one obedi- 
ent and industrious because God bids 
her to do so, and she wants to do as He 
tells her. Try then dear F — to make 
your children remember that you are 
striving to train them in obedience to 
God, to please Him. 

Perhaps few characteristics are more 
difficult to contend with in the young 
than indolence. 

"It is usually two fold — physical and 
mental — playing backward and forward 
on each other." 

Real work is hard to win without re- 



Ibapps Ibomes 81 

wards and punishments. And yet a 
wise teacher who tried them for years 
found them very poor, if not morally 
deteriorating motives and preferred the 
ultimate effect on the character of less 
acquirement and more truthful self esti- 
mate. Such listless natures need great 
encouragement and all possible com- 
mendation. Remember too, that nothing 
so wins the confidence of the young as 
the consciousness of being appreciated. 
And of this matter of confidence, how 
often mothers and teachers ask: "How 
can I win the confidence of this or that 
child?" Surely not by soliciting it, 
still more surely not by reproaches. 
There is want of dignity in soliciting 
it; perhaps too a failing to maintain the 
position of superiority and authority 
given by God to "the powers that be." 
Then too, there is in human nature an 
unconscious withholding of what is sought 
and vice versa. 

Nevertheless there should be on 



82 Xife's ]£\>er£bapnes0 

the part of every mother and 
teacher an inviting attitude, a sort 
of open heart and open arms a 
something that makes a child desire 
to win their confidence. The desire for 
trust may be soon seen in the eye or felt 
in the clinging, and may at once be met 
even in the very youngest, by a frank 
expression of thoughts and feelings suited 
to the age; perhaps by telling the doings 
and experiences of themother's ownyoung 
life, not in a moralizing tone to make a 
lesson apparent, but simply and honestly, 
to respond to the evident wish for confid- 
ence. This gradually draws forth re- 
sponsive truth, sometimes from the mere 
love of talking of self, sometimes from 
the dear love of sympathy till the 
younger life and the older become 
sweetly interwoven to the happy profit 
of the former, and the exceeding joy of 
the latter. 

Parents may often find it well to allow 
their children to share their domestic 
cares, so as to bring them into full sym- 



1bapp£ Ibomes 83 

pathy with the family, and thence to 
prompt those thousand peace-making 
ministries which are "more blessed to 
give than to receive. " 

Teachers will do well to pursue a 
similar course with their pupils, trust- 
ing them with the difficulties as well as 
with the delights of their work, accept- 
ing their ready aid and sympathy and 
thus investing childhood with the 
dignity of living for something better 
than the mere likings and dislikings of 
their age. 

Meanwhile children, whose early years 
are encompassed by the love of a mother 
who loves the Lord Jesus better than she 
loves even them, will, in after years say 
of childhood. 

"Fair seed-time had my soul, 

and I grew up 
Fostered alike by beauty and 

by fear. 



VIII. 

SPIRITUAL INSIGHT. 




SPIRITUAL INSIGHT. 

VIII. 

" God's spirit falls ojz me as dew-drops on a rose, 
If I but like a rose to Him7ny heart unclose," 

You tell me dear F — that your 

sojourn in the blessed country is over. 
You are home again, surrounded by 
the busy whirl and pressing duty of 
life's everydayness. And you add, 
already, your beautiful time of rest 
among the hills and by the sea begins 
to seem a dream. I straightway con- 
tradict the first statement, for such an 
experience cannot be over. You have 
it still. " Memory is possession." And 
as for it seeming like a dream there is 
just this difference; " all power of 
self-determination is suspended and 

absent in dreams, things go on, and 

'87 



88 %\Ws Bvers&a^ness 

we go with them at their own will," 
whereas in your summer-time experi- 
ence your own personality and power 
of self-determination were on the alert, 
active and positive. Hence you were 
as free as a bee to gather honey for 
the coming winter when and where 
your own will desired. 

What do I mean by gathering honey 
from summer beauty for winter cheer? 
How can your summer gleanings yield 
a rich harvest for the winter days, when 
instead of listening to the peaceful 
whispers of nature you must mix with 
the push and jostle of city life? 

I hardly know how to reply to these 
questions. Perhaps the simplest way 
will be by a brief sermonette on our 
Lord Christ's mountain-top sermon. 
You will wonder that I begin by speak- 
ing of your love for the beautiful in 
nature in connection with your daily 
life. But it is only when we see in 
God's works the expression of His own 



Spiritual ffnsiQbt 89 

perfect order and perfect law, that we 
find grace to help us in the ordering of 
our own imperfect faulty lives. The 
recognition of this truth is part of the 
summer harvest you went forth to glean 

dear F , and surely it has led you 

into a higher happiness than any that 
ever came through the senses unaided 
by the soul, although they are quick 
to feel the beauty with which the 
world is brimful. Nevertheless, we 
must cultivate this love if we would 
become truly intelligent as to nature. 
" For to love beauty is to gain new in- 
sight, since we thereby step into sun- 
beams." And in everything, even the 
least flower, there is a lesson and a 
sacred meaning. 

Yes, even a wayside flower, a blade 
of green grass, is fruitful with onreaching 
significance for winter days and the 
busy life in which human beings are 
unceasingly exerting influences on one 
another. And if your soul has dwelt 



9° Xtte's JEvevybayness 

on mountain heights, now, when you 
return to the lowlands, where your 
daily work is to be done, you cannot 
fail to bring new courage for old duties, 
and memories which will make your 
life richer, fuller and more useful, for 
you cannot help diffusing that which 
you have acquired any more than a rose 
can refuse to give out its sweet per- 
fume. Our blessed Lord Himself tes- 
tified when on earth to the symbolic 
value of the multitudinous analogies 
which subsist between the nature and 
attributes of man and the vegetable 
kingdom. Think how continually He 
selected them to illustrate His divine 
lessons: "Consider the lilies. " "Do 
men gather grapes of thorns?" "A 
good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit." 
" I am the true vine." Think also of 
the parable of the sower, the parable 
of the tares and wheat, and of the fig 
tree. Even thorns, thistles and the 
weeds by the roadside are significant 



Spiritual flnsigbt 91 

for they are faithful emblems of the 
thorns and the thistles of unsatisfied 
desires and unfulfilled hopes in the 
waste and weedy ground of the heart. 
Flower life and human life, as you dis- 
covered, have a no less marked corre- 
spondence to each other. " The higher 
life runs parallel to the lower, and re- 
peats in a grander form with new quali- 
ties superadded, what is exhibited in 
a humble form in the inferior creation." 

The whole history of human life is 
written, as the inspired writer tells us 
on the fading blossom of the plant. 
" Human flower after human flower 
opens its inward heart of beauty and 
fragrance to the sunshine of life, and 
then closes it forever, making the dark- 
ness of death itself beautiful." 

But not only do fading flowers rep- 
resent the various human friends and 
relatives that have died during the 
various seasons of our life, but they 
also represent the successive fading of 



92 Xife's Bver^Da^ness 

all those gifts and graces which make 
up our own individual life. " All the 
goodliness of man fades as the flower 
of the field." But remember it is the 
fading flower that is so wonderfully 
beautiful. Fix its beauty unchanged, 
and you make it an artificial flower, a 
dry mummy. We should feel everlast- 
ing flowers to be utterly incongruous in 
a world of change and decay. Their 
steadfast continuance, when there was 
no reason for their continuance, would 
weary and offend our minds. 

Instead of wishing for everlasting 
flowers, therefore, let us wish, rather, to 
be able to prize at its full worth the fleet- 
ing loveliness while it lasts, and to 
learn the grand lessons of content which 
its successive changes teach so impres- 
sively, that while the grass withereth 
and the flower fadeth, the Word of the 
Lord, by which they were called into 
existence — of which grass and flowers 
and all created things are but passing 



Spiritual UnsiQbt 93 

expressions, time syllables, as it were — 
abideth forever. 

Above all, dear F , remember as 

you recall the summer, that fruit is the 
end of vegetable life. It is for this the 
plant exists. And the end is more valu- 
able than the means. Beautiful as is 
the blossom it has no enduring nature. 
It is fruit alone that repays the efforts of 
the plant itself, and the toil and skill 
expended upon its cultivation. And so 
it is in human life. Precious as are the 
blossoms of hope that the youthful life 
produces so abundantly, the fruits of 
riper years are far more precious. Fru- 
ition, fulfillment, is worth more than 
mere promise, Do you believe this? 
Can you from your heart say, as Herbert 
did: 

"Oh that I were an orange-tree, 

That busy plant; 
Then should I ever laden be 

And never want 
Some fruit for Him that dressed me." 
These thoughts lead us back to the 



94 Xife's Bver^&apness 

sermonette I promised. I preface it by 
reminding you that Christ had gone in 
and out about Galilee doing deeds of 
mercy, but " He went up into a mount- 
ain/' when He uttered the benediction 
words that record the conditions of life 
and character which ripen "the fruits of 
the spirit. " And I know no better way 
by which you can make the coming 
season a blessing to yourself, and those 
you meet, than by incorporating Christ's 
mountain-top words into your daily life, 
while you link them with the lessons of 
faith, hope and love learned through 
your communion with nature during the 
by-gone months. 

By way of enforcing my meaning 
I beg you consider several of these nine 
benedietions. 

Think for a moment of the words — 
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs 
is the Kingdom of Heaven." 

Who are the poor in spirit but those 
who know and feel their entire depend- 



Spiritual Unsigbt 95 

ence on the Lord, and their nothingness 
without Him. Those who know, that 
if there be any good in their affctions, 
or in their lives, these things did not or- 
iginate in themselves, but are the gift's 
of God's love and mercy. 

"Blessed are they that mourn. " Par- 
adoxical as it seems one must suffer to 
find the secret of true happiness. 
"From grief comes glory 
As the rainbow from the cloud." 
But this is a truth for you to study by 
yourself, and I pass from it to the assur- 
ance, "Blessed are the meek," which 
emphasizes the first blessing promised, 
for evidently in their meaning these two 
benedictions are connected. "One of 
them refers to the internal, and the other 
to the external condition of man." To 
the poor in spirit the influence and happi- 
ness of heaven comes, because their self- 
renunciation suppresses that love of self, 
trust in self, pride in self which close and 
bar the doors of heaven. To the meek be- 



96 Xife's JEpergfca^ness 

longs the earth, or all external peace and 
happiness, "Blessed are they which 
hunger and thirst after righteousness, 
for they shall be filled. ,, "God's Hand 
is not shortened." He will provide the 
spiritual sustenance we need, and in the 
matter of temporal blessings, He also 
gives according to our needs. But be- 
cause His love is perfect, He can grant 
our wishes only when they will promote 
and not hinder spiritual growth, and 
"when we hunger and thirst after right- 
eousness," then, and then only, we have 
a strong desire, the gratification of which 
cannot but be well for us, and therefore 
it will surely come." 

"Blessed are the merciful." God 
grant we may receive into our hearts 
His infinite mercy, and thus be merciful 
with the mercy which is given to us. 
What a solemn text this is, teaching as 
it does, that the Lord deals with us as 
we deal with our brethren. How it 
tests the principles that rule social and 



Spiritual Unsigbt 97 

domestic life. — "Blessed are the poor 
in heart." These words and their sequel 
take us back to your summer days of 
beautiful seeing, when 

''God's glorious creation, 
The whisper of His power, 

New and wondrous revelation 
Unfolded every hour," 

And He is quite as near us now, He is 
all around us, He is all in all. If we fail 
to recognize the Unseen Presence it is 
because we are not pure in heart; because 
ourworldliness, our selfishness interposes 
a cloud between us and Him. 

"Blessed are the peace-makers." 
Perhaps of all the blessings this is the 
fullest of progress. Our first idea of 
peace is that of freedom from external 
conflict. We rise a step higher when 
we think of peace as repose after spiritual 
struggle. And still higher and higher, 
as we come to know of the peace of God 
which passeth all understanding." Peace 
— surely its earth-born emblem is the 
"Heartsease of all earth's flowers most 
rare." 



98 life's JEvevybavness 

My paper is so full to over-flowing I have 
only space to bid you ponder these moun- 
tain-top blessings and to ask, dear F 

have you read the inner meaning of my 
sermonette? Will you live in its spirit? 
If you will thus live, every day you will 
have "new thoughts of God, new hopes 
of heaven." 



IX. 

THE STORY OF A STORY. 




THE STORY OF A STORY, 



IX 

As you know dear F , arbutus 

flowers are among the first blossoms that 

respond to nature's wooing. Hence they 

are called: 

Spring's children, pure and tender, 
Prophet souls with lips of bloom," 

and truly they "teach us faith and duty/' 

truly they seem to say: 

"Walk life's dark path 

With love's divine foreknowing, 
That where man sees the withered leaves, 
God sees the flowers growing." 

But God's sight is not limited to 

material flowers. He sees even the 

least aspiration toward Him and service 

for Christ's sake, and all such aspira- 
101 



102 Xite's Bverp&apness 

tions are to the Lord spiritual flowers, 
the forerunners, as it were, of the after 
''fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, 
gentleness, goodness, faith." 

Somehow we are more apt to think of 
these graces, these flowers of the heart on 
holidays and holy days. The fact that 
such days mark special occasions, nat- 
urally inclines one to observe them as 
seasons peculiarly suitable for resolve 
and effort after better living, and may I 
not add, better loving, for so few of us 
love as much as we might. By way of 
meeting this desire to do, and to be, I 
propose to tell you the result of a true 
story printed years ago in the friendly 
columns of the New York Observer, 
Surely no time could be more appropri- 
ate for its repetition than the blessed 
Eastertide which emphasizes in little 
things as well as great, the resurrection 
after apparent death. Yes, Easter does 
this, for the glory of Easter is not only 
the crowning mercy which proclaims 



Zhe Stors of a StorE 103 

"Christ is risen," all growing things also 
offer tribute to His resurrective power. 
Life is astir at Easter, we see it in the 
least grass-blade by the road-side, we 
hear it in "the sound of a going in the 
tops of the trees." Nor is this all, for 
while it may be less openly, deed and 
influence are as full of resurrection life 
as leaf and flower. In proof of this we 
have but to think of the noble institu- 
tions of benevolence that are active 
powers in the world, and all of which are 
the out-growth and up-growth of some 
influence set at work often by only a 
word, a suggestion. This is a truth 
which gives great and sacred importance 
to seemingly "little things." The word 
we utter, the deed we do, however dor- 
mant and forgotten they may seem, may 
be, nevertheless, the very deeds of 
which it is written, "except a corn of 
wheat fall into the ground and die, it 
abideth alone; but if it die it bringeth 
forth much fruit." 



io4 %itc's JEver^fcapness 

ii 

But it is full time to refer to the story 
whose results though small at first, were 
later on most blessed. 

Indeed, I know no tale more fit to en- 
force the practical working of service, 
according to the rule of the ancient 
order of the grain of mustard-seed, the 
motto of which is, "none of us liveth 
to himself. " You doubtless know the 
holy Moravian, Count Zinzendrof? when 
he was a boy at school founded a society 
which he called by this title, and which 
"has grown in the course of time into a 
great tree, so that the fowls of the air 
take shelter among its branches." 

But my object is not to relate the 
history of saintly workers of old. No, I 
simply want to tell of a May-blossom, 
just one, among the hundreds, that 
opened into beauty and fragrance in re- 
sponse to May-day sunshine. 

This especial blossom was speedily dis- 
covered, gathered and sent forth on its 



Ube Stors of a Stor^ 105 

errand of mercy. It happened, that by 
night-fall of the very day of its blooming 
it had reached its destination. It was a 
room where all winter long, the air had 
been sweet with the perfume of flowers, 
and yet the eyes of the weary invalid, 
who, day after day, had gazed on the 
rare beauties of the floral world, filled 
with tears, as she held in her trembling 
hand the May-blossom. 

"May-flowers. I remember them so 
well when I was a girl," she said softly, 
and even as the tears fell she smiled, for 
"memory is possession,'* and sweet 
memories are wont to be linked with 
spring flow T ers. Do you remember 
Wordsworth's lines? 

■ 'For oft when on my couch I lie, 

In vacant or in pensive mood, 
They flash upon that inward eye 

Which is the bliss of solitude: 
And then my heart with pleasure fills, 

And dances with the Daffodils." 

The next morning when the invalid's 
physician entered the room, his gaze 



io6 %ite'8 Bperp&apness 

straightway rested on the May-flowers, 
and the light in his eyes grew tender, his 
voice more gentle, and when the invalid 
held toward him the cluster of wild-wood 
sweetness, he accepted the gift as grate- 
fully as he could have done had it been 
a costly gem or rich treasure. 

"Take it, doctor, she said, and wear 
it all day long." 

And with a smile the kindly old man 
fastened it in his buttonhole, where it 
stayed all day. Five minutes later the 
doctor left the invalid to go from one 
home to another, and from hospital to 
hospital. And in all these places he en- 
countered illness and suffering, and yet 
wherever he went, he seemed to bring a 
mystical balm of healing and soothing. 
Was it exhaled from the fragrance of that 
wild flower? Why not? "There is a 
lesson in each flower." 
III. 

The first room the doctor entered as 
he began that round of calls, was very 



Ube Stors of a 5tot£ 107 

unlike the invalid's. It was too, a very 
different patient by whose bedside he 
stood — a man scarce past his youth, and 
yet one whose voice w r as harsh, whose 
manner was repellent and rough, until 
he saw the May-blossom in the doctor's 
button-hole; then in a moment the harsh- 
ness of tone, the roughness of manner 
were gone, as he said in a voice gentle 
as a child's — a voice in which a smoth- 
ered sob sounded: ' 'May-flowers — heaps 
of <em grow in the five-acre lot to home. " 
And not another harsh nor bitter word 
did that youth utter all through the day, 
for memory had led him away from 
thoughts of sin, and years of wandering, 
back to the byegone years of innocent 
boy-hood. And think! he was led there 
by looking on only a May-blossom! 

The next patient the doctor visited 
was a child, and oh, the smile that lit up 
the pale, wan little face, as the wasted, 
trembling hand reached up toward the 
flowers. "Did Jesus send them?" 



108 %itc'8 Bver»bai?ness 

eagerly the child asked, and the doctor 
did not say * 'nay", indeed how could he, 
for, did not Christ send them? 

But I must not linger to tell of all the 
visits the doctor made that day. I have 
time only to record the one just before 
his good-night call on the invalid, It 
was nearing twilight as he entered the 
room where there were weeping parents, 
and sobbing brothers and sisters, for a 
dear, lovely little life was going from the 
earthly to the heavenly home. "She has 
taken no notice for an hour." Thus the 
mother said, and the baby took no no- 
tice as the physician held the tiny hand 
in his own. But as he bent over the 
little form and lifted it tenderly a sudden 
waft of sweetness stole out from the May- 
flowers. They were beginning to droop, 
and like some flowers they gave forth 
their sweetest odor just before they 
faded. Do some lives the same? 

Did the baby catch a breath of that 
fragrance? was that why the closed eye 



Zhc Ston? of a ©tors 109 

opened, why a smile played about the 
little mouth, why the little hand was 
lifted for a second? And then, the eyes 
closed, the hand had fallen, and on baby's 
heart gently the doctor laid the May-blos- 
som while softly he said, "if God so 
clothe the grass of the field, shall He not 
much more clothe you? " What did the 
doctor mean? Had the baby gone not 
to be clothed by mother's tender hand, 
but to be robed in the pure white raiment 
the little children wear — the children 
whom Christ carries in His bosom? 
IV. 

Do you ask, was there ever before a 
May-blossom freighted with so sweet a 
mission? Are there flowers blooming 
now that if gathered and sent to the sick 
and suffering, will go forth on errands 
thus laden with comfort, cheer and 
blessing? 

I answer, yes, if gathered and sent be- 
cause of love and tenderness for those of 
whom Christ said: "Inasmuch as ye 



no Xffe's E\>er£fc>a£ness 

have done it unto one of the least of 
these my brother, ye have done it unto 
me." 

Gather and send spring and sum- 
mer flowers to crowded hospitals, 
to pastors of mission chapels, to 
Bible readers and Bible workers, and 
you will know this to be true. 
V 

When the doctor came for his sec- 
ond call the invalid's eyes turned to the 
empty button-hole, and then he told 
her where he had left the May-blossom; 
he told also the influence the little May- 
flower had exerted, and as he ended he 
added: "Why not let this story of a May- 
blossom become a grain of mustard seed. 
Write it out and send it to the 'Observer/ 
and who knows what may spring-up 
from only a May-blossom?" 
VI 

The invalid did as the doctor bade. 
She wrote and sent the sketch. In due 
time it was printed, and in payment 



XTbe 5tor£ of a Stor^ m 

the invalid received ten dollars, which 
was five more than she expected. 
That ten dollars went by the next mail, 
winging its way westward. For the in- 
valid had a friend who had consecrated 
his strong, young, beautiful life to work 
for Christ and His dear poor. There 
was sore need of funds to help on this 
work. She had sent money before, she 
thought no more of that especial ten 
dollars than of the sums that had pre- 
ceeded it, and thus it passed out of 
her mind, it was in truth a corn of 
wheat that fell into the ground to die. 
But remember the afterpart, "except it 
die, it abideth alone. " And now we 
will turn from it for a minute while we 
follow a copy of that week's Observer 
that went sailing away over the wide 
Atlantic. It was opened by a young 
girl, a daughter of wealth, surrounded 
by luxury, who had in her power to ac- 
complish any scheme that occurred to 
her mind, and as she read the simple 



H2 Xife's j£ver£&a$ness 

story of what a May-blossom had done 
for the sick in only one day, it suggested 
a plan, by which a wider sphere of in- 
fluence could be secured for flowers. If 
you would know the result of the young 
girl's scheme you must needs visit the Ma- 
rine Hospital at one of the largest ports 
of Scotland, where the wards are always 
crowded, and you will see flowers every- 
where, in the hands of the dying, by the 
bed-side of the sick, on shelf, bracket, 
and window sill — flowers, flowers, every- 
where. And think! it was only a May- 
blossom that led to all this; think! a 
May-blossom that bloomed far away 
under the withered leaves of a wooded 
New England hill-side. Verily there is 
a resurrection power able to bring great 
results from small beginnings. 

But this is not all that May-blossom 
did — no, not half its work. A year went 
by, a letter came to the invalid, and this 
is what it said: "Our chapel is dedi- 
cated and ten dollars did it." It hap- 



Ube Stors of a 5tor£ 113 

pened in this way, that ten dollars — the 
tangible result of sowing a May-flower 
in the columns of the Observer — was re- 
ceived by the invalid's friend at a 
time when he earnestly desired to build 
a chapel in that quickly growing wes- 
tern city, but did not know how to raise 
the needed money. But "what should 
he do with that ten dollars if there were 
no chapel built in which to put it?" 
With this plea he approached several 
rich men doing business in the neighbor- 
hood and they responded, and in one day 
over a thousand dollars was pledged for 
the work. But enough, I need not point 
the moral dear F — and I have only space 
to end as I began, by bidding you re- 
member that no season is so sure to yield 
a harvest in return for spiritual seed- 
sowing as Easter. For, at that time we 
walk in the midst of wonders; the 
wonders of creation, the wonders of 
providence, the wonders of grace, for, 
Christ is Risen. 



X. 

THE GOSPEL OF CIRCUM- 
STANCES. 




THE GOSPEL OF CIRCUM- 
STANCES. 

x. 

"Godliness with contentment is great 
gain," you have been familiar with these 
words all your life dear F — and yet you 
tell me you are tempted by discontent, 
and that it assails you not in one, but in 
many forms. Chief among them you 
enumerate discontent with self, your 
attainments, position, circumstances, sur. 
roundings, and alas, home, and the peo- 
ple with whom your lot in life is cast. 
And you ask: Give me a remedy for all 

these murmurings and complainings. 
117 



n8 Xife's jEvcvvbavncBs 

There is but one remedy, and that lies 
within your reach — God would not 
make anything your duty, unless its at- 
tainment were possible. — And the com- 
mand is: "Be content with such things 
as ye have." Hence if "such things" 
include the trials of which you tell, it is 
none the less your duty to make the 
best of them. 

Just here I pause to bid you consider 
the word gospel, which I use in con- 
nection with circumstances. As you 
know, gospel signifies "good news," and 
joined to circumstances surely it will help 
us to find in the gospel of circumstances 
comfort and help. For what are cir- 
cumstances but God's ordering for His 
children! It is God, not you, who ap- 
points your lot in life, and however it 
may seem, if you truly believe His 
promises you can rest satisfied, knowing 
His choice is the very best for you, and 
that if any other lot, any other discipline, 
would have been better for the develop- 



Gospel of Circumstances 119 

ment of life's great object — growth in 
grace — He would not have placed you 
where you are. Remember this, and the 
next time you feel discontented with cer- 
cumstances, say softly to yourself; 

"God knows," and "God is love, 
Remember also, 

"Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident, 

It is the very place God meant for thee; 

And shouldest thou there small scope for 
action see 

Do not for this give room to discontent; 

Nor let the time thou owest to God be spent 

In idly dreaming how thou mightest be, 

In what concerns thy spiritual life more free, 

From outward hindrance 01 impediment: 

For presently, this hindrance thou shalt find 

That without which all goodness were a task.' 

And now a word regarding those with 
whom the circumstances of your daily 
life bring you in contact. This also, is 
not accidental — the particular characters, 
their traits, foibles, deficiencies, mistakes 
and blunders which try you, are all 
meant to supply the very discipline you 
need. I pass on to you a bit of advice 



120 Xife's Bver^tmsness 

which fits into your trouble, and which 
will help you overcome the impulse to 
judge and condemn others. It was given 
by Harriet Monsell to one of the young 
sisters in the community of St. John the 
Baptist. The girl had been disappointed 
at finding a companion different from 
what she had thought at first. This she 
told Mrs. Monsell, who replied by a look 
of sympathy, and said: "I thought 
some saints at first, then that they were 
very naughty people, and now I am more 
reasonable. I know that they are good 
women, and full of good and earnest in- 
tentions, and striving to live up to them. 
Remember God, not we, chooses His 
own instruments. If we are good 
enough for Him to work with, 1 suppose 
we are good enough for each other. It 
is all wrong to be judging and looking at 
things to disturb ones'-self." In addi- 
tion to this dear F — I urge, always strive 
to judge your friends by their circum- 
stances, and not by your own. Try to 



Gospel of Circumstances 121 

look at things from their point of view, 
and often this will prevent you from 
thinking them selfish or unsympathiz- 
ing. 

In regard to dissatisfaction with your 
surroundings and position, I can only 
remind you, nothing so shuts us away 
from the enjoyment of the mercies our 
heavenly Father has "given us richly to 
enjoy/' as the indulgence of a spirit of 
discontent. Thus I suggest, when next 
you feel the stirring of discontent in your 
heart, before it finds expression in your 
countenance, voice, or manner, spend a 
minute in counting up your blessings, 
and unless I am greatly mistaken, you 
will find they far exceed your trials, and 
above all, now before it is too late, open 
your mind to the truth that discontent 
is sin, a three-fold sin — "sin toward God, 
sin toward your friends and associates, 
sin toward yourself." Sin toward God 
because it is written "the lot is cast into 
the lap, but the whole disposing thereof 



122 Xife's Eperpfcma^ess 

is of the Lord," and contentment does 
not ask the why or wherefore, no, it 
symply ascepts His will, and thanks 
Him for His love and care. Sin against 
your friends and neighbors, for it has 
hindered you from living in the spirit of 
love. Sin against yourself, for it has 
held you back from peace and rest, it 
has dimmed your eyes to the clear, 
bright, beautiful, and bountiful blessings 
that encompass you — it has dulled your 
ears to the loving voices that would have 
made your heart glad. But enough, the 
remedy for discontent is found in remem- 
bering all your circumstances, even the 
most minute are in the Hands of God, 
and if they are environed by a "yoke" 
He will make His yoke easy and His 
burden light, if it be borne in His name 
and for His sake. Seek this spirit then 
in your intercourse with others, and with 
the world, and in charit}^ love and 
gentleness, adorn the human side of 
existence with the beauty of holiness 



Gospel of Circumstances 123 

and the grace of loving self-sacrifice, and 

thus reveal the Christ life in God, with 

its halo, "godliness with contentment," 

and remember. 

' 'True life grows from small to great, 

Each year each day its increase lends; 
Nor is it the blind force of fate 
That earthly sorrow oft-time blends 
With the pure work of grace the more to 

consecrate, 
The love which ever in its sacred yearning 

heavenward tends." 



XI. 

THE HOLY COMMUNION. 




THE HOLY COMMUNION. 



XL 

''It is my Maker, dare I stay? 
My Saviour, dare I turn away? 
Doubt we yet, Thou call* st again, 
A lower still, a sweeter strain; 
The very breath of Love Divine; 
A voice fr 077i 77iercy's in77iost shrine; 
Whispering it says to each apart. 
Come unto me thou tre77ibling hearty 
And we must hope, so sweet the tone 
The precious words are all our ow7t.' 

Like many another invalid you tell me 
dear F — that you find peculiar difficulties 
encompassing the observance of our 
Lord's command: "This do in remem- 
brance of me/' and you ask for help 
in solving these difficulties, which you 
rank under whatyou term social obstacles 
and personal hindrances. Among the 
first you name a dread of giving trouble, 
a fear of interruption, and the difficulty 

of choosing a time which will suit both 
127 



128 Xife'a Bvet^apness 

your pastor and yourself, you also fear 
the expression of your wish will increase 
the anxiety of those who love you by 
leading them to think you have lost hope 
of recovery. Then too, while you miss 
and long to join in the public church 
service, a feeling of awkwardness per- 
vades the idea of communion in your 
own house, perhaps in your sick room, 
where you realize all would be so unlike 
the service in church. 

Yes, I know, "the holy place, the many 
worshipers, and all the associations are 
the greatest help to devotion, neverthe- 
less when God calls the sick aside into 
their chamber He expects them to wor- 
ship Himthere and not at church, and it is 
there that He meets with them and 
blesses them. They will not fail to feel 
His presence if they really expect it and 
believe in it." As to your "fears of in- 
terruption and of not choosing a suitable 
time they can be obviated by selecting 
a special hour which is wont to be the 



Ube tools Communion 129 

freest in the day, and making it a stated 
service at that time with more or less 
frequency according to circumstances. 

The feeling of timidity with which 
you anticipate this home service will, 
I think, wear off the more frequently it 
is observed. And if you explain to those 
who love you that you desire the service 
because you feel the need of grace to 
help you in this time of weakness and 
pain, you can easily prevent its causing 
them special anxiety. You may also 
win a blessing for them by thus empha- 
sizing the importance of obeying not only 
our Lord's command, but His desire; 
for He said: "With desire 1 have 
desired to eat this passover with you." 
Remember it is the Lord's supper, His 
own, and He Himself invites you to 
meet Him at His table, and acceptance 
of this blessed invitation will help you 
as nothing else will to keep in mind all 
He has done for you. 

This assertion leads me to the chief 



13 o Xife's Brer&asness 

of the personal hindrances you mention, 
your fear, because of your unworthiness, 
to avail yourself of the blessed privilege. 
What do you think would make you 
worthy? 

Do you reply, you hardly know, but 
you feel it a service only for the good 
and holy, and while you trust in the 
Lord Jesus and believe that He can 
wash away your sin, you are still very 
far from being either good or holy? 

In answer to this objection I can only 
tell you, I, and many people whom you 
know, take it with thankful hearts, and 
we are just like you, neither good nor holy 
only sinners washed in His blood. Do 
you continue to question, do you ask 
why we take it? Dear, when you leave 
this world for the other and better, would 
you like the friends who love you best 
to forget you? 

"No fear of that, ''you say, and as you 
say so, the sureness of their remembrance 
is very dear, and you like to feel, "the 



Ube 1bois Communion 131 

unknown which men call heaven is close 
behind the visible scene of things." 

What has all this to do with your 
observance of the Holy Communion? 

Nothing, save simply to show you that 
the dear Lord Christ does not like us to 
forget Him any more than we like to feel 
an earthly friend will forget us. His 
own words, which you have already 
quoted, assure you of this, and they ex- 
press a distinct command — "do this." 
Surely He meant also, that we should re- 
member something very particular by 
the use of the bread and wine. Listen 
to His words: "This is My blood shed 
for the remission — forgiveness of sins." 

Thus you plainly see partaking of the 
sacrament is an act of remembrance of 
what Christ did for you on the cross, the 
wine being the emblem of His blood 
which washes away sins, even yours and 
mine, while the bread means Himself; 
the bread of Life, upon which the soul 
feeds whenwe partake of the sacrament, 



132 Xxfe's JE^erp&apness 

and by the sign of an inward process 
receive His grace. 

"Cannot this grace be obtained with- 
out actually partaking?" you ask, and 
you bid me remember the rubric which 
tells you, that you may "eat by faith." 

True enough you may, but you must 
not omit the leading words in that rubric, 
"when you are truly hindered," and as 
we have found in your case, and in the 
case of most invalids, the hindrances are 
generally overcome by prayer for guid- 
ance and strength, and by remembering 
it is not merely a desire of your own you 
wish to gratify. Then you might fear 
making too much of yourself. No; it is 
something higher than your wish; it is 
Christ's wish, and your part is to "look 
unto Him, the Author and the Finisher 
of our faith; who for the joy that was set 
before Him, endured the cross, despis- 
ing the shame, and is set down at the 
right hand of the throne of God." I 
would fain dwell, dear F — on the many 



Ube 1bol£ Communion 133 

blessings Christ bequeaths through this 
sacrament, but I have only space to re- 
mind you that the greatest of them all is 
Himself as living and spiritual food. 
Yes, this is the great and important 
truth, for it will enable you to "endure 
as seeing Him who is invisible," it will 
raise you above suffering, it will 
strengthen you in weakness, it will help 
you to "lay aside every weight, and the 
sin which doth so easily beset you." 

Meanwhile "He knoweth your frame, 
and remembereth that you are dust, "and 
you need not be discouraged if you do 
not at once feel all this. He only requires 
and expects as much as you are able 
to give. Sometimes the blessing is even 
greater after the service than at the time. 
It will come in many ways in bearing 
and forbearing, in little acts of self-denial, 
and in the renunciation of your own will; 
in living for others rather than for your- 
self. It will help you also in whatever 
weakness you are called to endure, for 



134 ^Life's JEvers&aEness 

Christ will be the strength of your heart, 
He will sustain you amid physical weak- 
ness, and He will be with you for the 
final deliverance from the body of the 
flesh — and then will come joy forever, 
for there shall be neither sorrow nor cry- 
ing, neither shall there be any more pain, 
for the former things will have passed 
away. 

"Oh Christ, He is the Fountain, 

The deep sweet well of love! 

The streams on earth I've tasted 

More deep I'll drink above: 

There, to an ocean fulness 

His mercy doth expand; 

And glory, glory dwelleth, 

In Immanuel's land." 



XII. 
SOCIETY FIBS OR THE STORY 
OF A WHITE LIE. 




SOCIETY FIBS OR THE STORY 
OF A WHITE LIE. 

Can there be such a thing as a white 

lie, an innocent lie? Lying is the 
absolute of evil " — Victor Hugo. 

%i To be true is to hate every form of false- 
hood." — F. W. Robertson. 

These quotations dear F — are a fit- 
ting prelude* to the brief story I pass on 
to you in reply to your question regard- 
ing "society fibs" or "white lies" as you 
call them. And without delay I will tell 
the tale. 

I. 

Perhaps there is no pleasanter town 

than Greenport on the New England 

coast. The village nestling in a long 

narrow valley flanked by wooded hills, 

looks down upon the sea. The houses 

on the principal street are all much alike 
137 



138 Xxte's TEvcvybaymss 

so far as symmetrical doors and windows 
can make them — save Miss. Raymond's. " 
It is a pretty house inside and out, 
sunny and snug in winter and cool and 
shady in summer. Its pointed roof, 
high chimney, and mullioned windows 
have a picturesque appearance, though 
without any pretention to architectural 
effect. 

Now in mid-spring it was cool enough 
toward night-fall for a bright fire in the 
luxurious library. Two ladies sat at the 
study table. A glance defined their 
social position. Wealth and refinement 
were accentuated by every detail of 
their apparel. They were obviously re- 
lations, by strong family likeness, yet 
with individual difference. Both were 
tall, fair and essentially well-bred. Miss 
Raymond or Miss Margaret, as I like to 
call her, was even more than courteous. 
She possessed a sweet graciousness of 
manner that proclaimed a kindly heart, 
rich in sympathy and warm, healthful 



Society fibs 139 

affection. This quick sensibility shone 
in the clear depths of her hazel eyes, 
and imparted a winning charm to her 
words. In age she belonged to the gen- 
eration of women, rapidly aging now, 
who were in the dawn of love, youth and 
beauty, at the fateful period we remem- 
ber as "War-time." 

The hour I introduce you to Miss 
Margaret she was sitting, as I said, by 
the study table, a volume of outlines 
open before her, and sheets of sketching 
paper some traced with fair copies of 
her exquisite models, and others with 
her own scarcely less lovely ideals. 
Her companion, Maud Hoffman, a girl 
of eighteen, came near to being very 
beautiful. Her profile was almost Gre- 
cian, her eyes large and dark, and her 
fair hair grew in wavy abundance. Or- 
dinarily Maud was without much color, 
but when interested or excited a bright 
glow came into her cheeks, and kindled 
a light in her eyes, and played about 



her mouth, which was beautiful in form 
and sweet in expression. These signs 
of animation were very apparent, as, with 
an air of impatience, she closed the 
book she had vainly tried to read. For 
a moment she stood by the window 
looking out at the sea, and then she 
pushed a crimson covered hassock in 
front of the fire, and sat down, ostensibly 
to watch the cheery blaze, w T hich gave 
forth the radiant hues of deep red, blue, 
violet, yellow and sea greens that 
ever lurk in drift-wood fires. The fire- 
light emphasized her unconscious grace 
of attitude. Her elbow rested on her 
knee, the chin supported in the hollow 
of her uplifted hand, while her long dark 
lashes showed delicately over her down- 
cast eyes as she pushed the hair back 
from her broad low forehead. 

Miss Margaret's heart was full of ten- 
derness as she gazed at the fair young 
girl. She had noticed earlier in the day 
the look in Maud's tell-tale eyes that 



Society jfibs 141 

conveyed, unaware, the hint of some 
special regret, while her mouth had been 
more firmly set than its wont. But 
while Miss Margaret had not appeared 
to observe these indications of annoy- 
ance, they determined her to tell Maud 
of a grief concerning which she had 
been silent for years. They also led her 
to do her part, as an older woman 
should, toward making the way easy for 
the girl to speak of her trouble, if she 
wanted sympathy or counsel. This was 
less difficult from the fact that unknown 
to Maud, Miss Margaret knew the secret 
of the trouble. She knew it was due to 
what Maud was wont to lightly call "a 
society fib," a white lie, made justifiable 
by social usage. 

Miss Margaret had often remonstrated 
with Maud against the fallacy of the 
fashionable code, which maintains that 
politeness and the making of others feel 
at ease warrants the use of statements 
at variance with truth; but until now, it 



142 Xife's 3£\>er£ba$nes5 

had not occurred to her to enforce her 
arguments by the recital of how in her 
own experience, the false use of three 
brief words caused life-long sorrow. 
II 
The light in the room was fading into 
twilight when Miss Margaret began her 
tale. Her voice was soft and low, yet 
tremulous, and her manner gentle and 
composed as she broke the silence, say- 
ing: "Listen, Maud, and I will tell you 
a story of my youth." And without fur- 
ther preface she went on. "I had known 
Ralph Gordon fully ten years before the 
news from Fort Sumpter flashed through 
our land, kindling into action thousands 
of brave men and timid women who 
were strong to suffer with our suffering 
land. Until that hour neither Ralph nor 
I had ever thought that a shadow could 
come between us and the sunshine of 
our gladness. We were such young 

things, so light-hearted: 
The world was boundless for we did not know 
And life a poem for we had not sung." 



Society jfibs 143 

As she uttered these words the light 
in Miss Margaret's eyes grew even 
softer and more tender. After a brief 
pause, she continued: "Ralph Gordon 
was among the early volunteers. He 
was straightway appointed captain, and 
his regiment speedily ordered to report 
at Baltimore. " 

"It was a Monday morning when they 
left Greenport. On the next day they 
were to start for the south. I was to 
meet Ralph — thus we planned — Tuesday 
at noon-time, for a farewell word, at my 
grandfather's in Boston. Feeling sure 
of this farewell meeting we parted with- 
out a spoken word of promise — it was 
not needed, we well knew one another's 
story — and yet — and yet — if Ralph Gor- 
don had told me of his love — oh, child 
what a comfort it would have been to 
me; but I missed that crowning joy be- 
cause" — and for a moment Miss Mar- 
garet broke down completely, as she sob- 
bed out, "because of what you call a so- 
ciety fib." 



H4 Xffe's JEver^fcasness 

As Maud looked up into her aunt's 
dark eyes through the mist in her own, 
Miss Margaret drew the girl close to 
her and bent over and warmly kissed the 
upturned face. When she again spoke 
her voice sounded strange and far away, 
but not once again did she lose her self- 
control, not even when she said: "Just 
before Ralph bade me good-night — even 
though we parted without a word of 
plighted troth, he put upon my arm a 
circlet of gold, starred with a gem; I 
have worn it ever since, and I think no 
one will break the clasp when I am 
dead!" And with a touch tender as a 
caress, Miss Margaret's fingers rested on 
the old-fashioned keep-sake, the only 
ornament she ever wore. Then she be- 
came silent for awhile. Looking at 
her, Maud wondered if she had forgot- 
ten the present, was she living in the 
past, or in the future, which? 

Presently she resumed her narration, 
saying: 



©octets fibs 145 

"When I reached Boston the streets 
were crowded. The air palpitated with 
the beat of drums and martial music. 
Flags and streamers of red, white and 
blue floated from public buildings and 
private residences. The entire city was 
attuned to war. Regiments tramped up 
one street, and down another, at every 
corner progress was impeded. When at 
last the carriage stopped, the clock on a 
neighboring church tower pointed to 
within five minutes of the hour Ralph 
Gordon had named as the only time he 
would be free to come for the farewell. 
Grandfather met me on the door-step. 
He was hurrying away to address a 
militia regiment I had just seen entering 
the Common. Nevertheless he lingered 
to reply to my eager question by a 
cheery assurance that I had arrived in 
time." 

"At the words my heart beat high 
with a rush of thankfulness. I sped 
through the hall, up the wide stair-case 



146 Xife's JEvers&a^ness 

to grandmother's morning-room. I re- 
member every detail, even now, I can 
recall the sound of old Hannibal's greet- 
ing words and his repeated 'powerful 
glad to see de young Misses, powerful 
glad.' The words followed me like an 
echo, but alas, they failed to waken a 
warning memory until too late — I had 
but crossed the threshold of my grand- 
mother's room," Miss Margaret con- 
tinued, "when I heard the hall door 
shut violently, and a second later the 
quick beat of a horse's hoofs galloping 
swiftly away. Instinctively I knew what 
had happened. With a wild cry I flew 
down the stairs and out into the street. 
I was just in time to catch sight of a 
manly figure, and then, horse and rider 
were hidden, and lost in the crowd." 
Miss Margaret's voice was mournful as 
a cry, and yet she was very calm as she 
added: "We never met again — but we 
will — oh, yes, I know we will — I believe 
in the Resurrection." 



Society jfibs 147 

Again there was silence in the room, 
only broken by the sing-song hum of the 
smouldering driftwood fire, and the dis- 
tant murmur of the sea waves. When at 
last Maud spoke her voice trembled with 
emotion as she asked softly: "Tell me, 
how did it all happen?" 

Margaret Raymond was not consider- 
ed by her friends a demonstrative woman, 
but she kissed Maud's fair brow for the 
second time that evening as she replied: 
"The explanation is simple. It was my 
own fault; during a former visit at grand- 
father's I had striven to overcome Han- 
nibal's righteous repugnance against 
telling what I assured him was only <a 
harmless white lie.' At last' I persuaded 
him to accept the formula 'not at home' 
as a polite manner of refusing admit- 
tance to morning callers. But while 
Hannibal had yielded in obedience to 
my wish, he never reported the false use 
of the words without adding: 'Peers 
like de truth is de better way.' How 



148 Xife's Bperfcapness 

much better child, I learned that day! 
Hannibal had never seen Ralph Gordon, 
he was a morning caller, the old serving 
man thought he was doing me a service 
when according to my false training he 
said 'not at home' even though a few 
minutes before, he had seen me enter 
the house. Ralph, of course, never 
thought that I, Margaret Raymond, his 
ideal maiden, would teach a servant to 
utter an untruth to save myself from in- 
terruption, or because it was considered 
a less formal refusal than a chilling 'beg 
to be excused.' Hence Ralph under- 
stood the words to mean that I had not 
arrived. He could not wait, as it was, 
he only reached the station in time to 
spring from his horse on to the train, 
already moving slowly out of the depot." 
For a moment Miss Margaret seemed 
to forget Maud's presence, and as though 
thinking aloud, she murmured, "I wish 
the jewel in my braclet would not gleam 
as I tell the story, it shines like a tear 



Society fibs 149 

never wiped away." This forgetfulness 
of Maud was but brief, soon Miss Mar- 
garet spoke again calm and low. "Time 
sped on," she said; "we were within a 
week of Ralph's furlough. I counted 
the hours, the minutes. The week was 
prefaced by a September Sabbath, a day 
beautiful as a dream. I remember it all 
so well; the air was keen and sunny, the 
sea blue and rippling; the wooded hill- 
sides were touched with a tint of autumn 
glory. I could not tell why, but Ralph 
seemed so near that morning. I felt his 
presence as one feels the nearness of a 
friend expected the next hour. Was he 
near? Do earthly miles separate hearts 
that love?" 

Not waiting for a reply, Miss Mar- 
garet continued: "A blank comes now, 
it was all beyond words. Afterwards, 
long afterwards, I heard the history of 
that day on Maryland heights. Years 
followed, the war ended, they said peace 
reigned. But there was no peace in my 



150 %\t€s jflBtters&a^ness 

heart. I was so slow in learning sub- 
mission. I seemed to spell the lesson 
backward; I seemed to forget that I never 
could learn it, till faith and patience 
met, and there is only one place where 
they can meet, and that is within the 
shadow of the Cross. When I sought 
that refuge I found life held something 
better than happiness — dear and beauti- 
ful as happiness is — and since then, it 
has been blessedness." 

"Later, there came a stranger to 
Greenport. He was a soldier, the empty 
coat-sleeve told that. He asked for me, 
and he was pointed to my home. "I 
have a message,'" he said: "He bade 
me" — and I knew the stranger meant by 
he, my Ralph — "bring this — I found it 
in the bullet-pierced pocket of his coat; 
it rested on his heart." And the 
stranger handed me — oh — it was noth- 
ing, just a powder-blackened torn thing, 
a picture of myself. But — it had rested 
on Ralph Gordon's heart." 



Society jfibs 151 

in. 

Twilight had deepened while Miss 
Margaret told her story. She had 
hardly uttered the last words when the 
the library door opened, the maid an- 
nounced, "Mr. Foster," and life's every - 
dayness asserted itself. It is wont to be 
thus — even amid the hours of deepest 
sorrow some voice calls us back into the 
daily routine of life. Some light must 
be lit — some fire stirred. Well — it is 
better so. 

But, before the visitor had time to 
enter, Miss Margaret softly whispered; 
"child, remember be true, true in word, 
true in deed, true in thought! 

And then, after a cordial greeting to 
James Foster, Miss Margaret left the 
room, and he advanced toward Maud, 
who met him with outstretched hands, 
bowed head, tear dimmed eyes, and 
earnest voice, saying: "James, forgive 
me, it was false. I told you a society 
fib. 



152 %iic's JEver^Jmsness 

What followed Miss Margaret did not 
hear. But later in the evening, as she 
stood by the window in her dressing- 
room, looking out at the sea sparkling 
in the silvery moonlight, and up into the 
calm blue of the star-lit sky, a quick 
light step crossed the room, warm arms 
were impulsively thrown around her, 
and Maud, her face shining with a new 
light and joy exclaimed, "I am so 
happy, but I cannot bear to be so glad 
when I think of you, dear." 

If there were tears in Miss Margaret's 
eyes there were smiles too, as she list- 
ened to Maud's story — the sweet story 
so old — so always new — for Margaret 
Raymond had long ago learned that 
Christ's Love can make all life one 
great duty, and that however dark its 
woof, because of that divine Love, it is 
shot through a web of brightness. 



XIII. 
IN THE WORLD: NOT OF IT. 




IN THE WORLD: NOT OF IT. 

XIII. 

What do I think of sisterhoods? 
How can you live in the world and not 
be of it unless you separate yourself from 
surrounding influences by joining some 
sisterhood or organization devoted to 
the development of the religious life? 

In reply to the first question dear F — 
for you, and for young people like you, 
home has such a call one cannot doubt 
it is God's place for you, and yet I 
sympathize with your dissatisfaction. I 
appreciate that living a life without 
much to do but that which seems self- 
pleasing, prompts this anxious question. 
Still your duty is just now chiefly in be- 
ing cheerful, agreeable and kind to every 

one, and you may be sure if you are not 
155 



i^6 Xite's jEver^Dasness 

faithful in these seemingly little ways you 
will never be able to rule over much. She 
who cannot keep her temper, or be self- 
sacrificing, tender, bright, and attentive 
at home, will never be of any real and 
permanent use to God's poor abroad, 
however much she may bind herself by 
rules and pledges. And certain it is the 
every-day duties and relations of life are 
the most sacred. Hence I repeat as 
long as you have about you in your own 
home, parents, sister, brother or servant 
to whom you can do good, that is the 
place in which you are appointed to 
illustrate, and live up to the principle of 
the lines: 

' ' They serve God well 

Who serve His creatures most. " 

Meanwhile, give your heart to God, 
and then you will find the perplexing 
questions which now trouble you will 
vanish, and the home duties, the watch- 
fulness over one's inner life, the devo- 
tion to God, and the life of usefulness 



Un tbe worifc: mot of if 157 

will all fall into place; you will find also 
your dreams of regenerating society by 
the means of sisterhoods and organiza- 
tions will give way to the simple belief 
that "the only way to regenerate the 
world is to do the duty which lies near- 
est us, and not to hunt after grand far- 
reaching ones for ourselves. If each drop 
of rain chose where it should fall, God's 
showers would not fall as they do now, 
on the evil and the good alike?" I copy 
this from a letter written by Charles 
Kingsley to a woman troubled much as 
you are, and he adds: "I know from the 
experince of my own heart — how gal- 
ling this doctrine is; how, like Naaman, 
one goes away in a rage because the 
prophet has not bid us do some great 
thing, but only to go and wash in the 
nearest brook." 

But it is time I passed on to that 
difficult question, how to reconcile social 
and religious duties. I am far from 
thinking it possible to serve God and the 



i5 8 %xfc's Everpba^ness 

world — but living in the world is not 
serving the world — and " the only place 
in which we can overcome a wrongful 
love of the world is in the world. 
"Social life to a certain extent also is 
indispensable, if according to the cat- 
echism we believe " man's chief end is to 
glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." 
For the more we mingle with those 
about us the more opportunities we have 
for usefulness and for glorifying God. 
But remember, "social life at home, or 
in general society, is good and elevating, 
or bad and degrading, according to the 
end it has in view, the place it holds in 
the mind, the reason for which it is 
songht, and the principles by which it is 
governed." 

I read the other day a definition of 
worldliness which I pass on, for it seems 
to belong to this very place: "If one en- 
joys social pleasures with no desire to 
give enjoyment to others; if in giving 
them enjoyment, the thing which de- 



In tbe worlfc: mot of ft 159 

lights us most is the homage paid to our 
attractions, the favor we win, the delight 
of knowing that our beauty, or grace, or 
conversation is admired: if all these are 
the ruling elements of our social 
pleasures then be our success what it 
may, and whatever charms of refinement 
or elegance we may present in our social 
relations, then it is social worldliness, and 
it is a poor, bad thing and an inevitably 
degrading thing. So, too, social 
pleasure is social worldliness when it is 
sought and loved for its own sake alone, 
merely as amusement, merely to fill up 
the vacancies of an unemployed life, and 
only because it banishes ennui for a 
moment." 

Farther on in this same book I find 
written: " What is the true antagonist 
of worldliness ? What is worldliness ? 
For if we see that, we can see its oppo- 
site. But we have seen that worldliness, 
in its widest and most general sense, is 
the undue love of the world without us. 



160 Xife's JEycvvbayness 

Does it not follow that this must be 
checked and controlled by awakening a 
profounder interest for the world within? 
By holding in the mind an earnest and a 
constant love for the enjoyments which 
rightfully belong to the world within? 
They are the love for truth, the delight 
in growing wise, the happiness to be de- 
rived from the consciousness that you 
have given yourself to God; that it is 
the very business of your life to cultivate 
every faculty you have in the belief that 
He has given them to you that you may 
become His instrument for usefulness, 
and that He asks this of you because, if 
you grant it, you enable Him to give 
you more of His own happiness than you 
can otherwise secure. You are not 
wholly safe against worldliness until this 
way of thinking and feeling becomes the 
constant habit of your life. Whatever 
is less than this is not enough." 
" O Father! Not my will but Thine be done! 
So spake the son. 



1Fn tbe worlo: mot of it 161 

Be this our charm, mellowing earth's ruder 

noise of griefs and joys: 
That we may cling ever to Thy breast 
In perfect rest ! " 



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THE CHRISTIAN LIFE SERIES. 

"I do not know of any writer whose works on 'The Life 
More Abundant' I could more heartily recommend than those 
of Mr. Meyer."— Rev. B. Fay Mills. 

Christian Living $ .50 

"A small book, but mighty in power."— Interior. 

The Present Tenses of the Blessed Life $ .50 

"A little book we warmly commend to all Christian people." 
— Frances E. Willard in The Union Signal. 

The Shepherd Psalm $ .50 

"Worth its weight in gold."— Central Baptist. 

The Future Tenses of the Blessed Life $ .50 

ENVELOPE SERIES OF BOOKLETS. 

Two packets, each containing twelve different book- 
lets. Per dozen, 20c. ; per hundred #1.5° 

CHOICE EXTRACTS from writings of F. B. Meyer, com- 
piled by Rev. B. Fay Mills. 48 pages, 5c. each; 35c. per doz. 

Chicago. Fleming H. Revell Company, newxobk. 



WORKS BY DR. A. J. GORDON. 



Dr. Gordon is a writer with whom to differ is better and more 
suggestive than to agree with some others. He loves the truths 
he gives his readers much that is true and deeply of the essence o) 
Christianty.—TwE Independent. 

The Holy Spirit in Missions. i2mo., cloth, gilt 
top $1.25 

A new volume by this author is always welcomed. The 
theme of this new work, as treated by Dr. Gordon, is sure to be 
full of deepest interest. 

Ecce Venit; Behold He Cometh. Paper, net, 50c; 
cloth $1.25 

It is impossible to read this book without being stimulated 
by it and getting higher and fresher views ol some aspects of 
Christianity which are perhaps dwelt on less than they should 
be." — Independe?it. 

In Christ; or, The Believer's Union With His Lord. 
Seventh Edition. Paper, net, 35c. ; cloth $1 00 

"We do not remember since Thomas a Kempis a book so 
thoroughly imbued with a great personal love to Christ. It is 
evidently the happy result of hours of high communion with 
Him." — Boston Courier. 

The Ministry of Healing; or, Miracles of Cure in 
All Ages. Third Edition. Paper, net, 50c. ; cloth $1.25 
"An interesting and thoughtful work. Dr. Gordon mar- 
shals together witnesses from all ages and all classes in favor of 
his belief that cures may still be wrought through prayer." — 
British and Foreign Evangelical Review. 

The Two=Fold Life; or, Christ's Work for Us, and 

Christ's Work in Us. Paper, net, 50c; cloth.. $1. 25 

"Distinguished by exquisite purity of thought, by deep 
spiritual insight, and by great strength of practical argument. 
The work is one of great spiritual beauty and helpfulness." — 
Baptist Magazine. 

Grace and Glory; Sermons for the Life That Now 
Is and That Which Is to Come. Paper, net, 50c. ; 
cloth $1.50 

"Here we have power without sensationalism; calm thought, 
living and earnest, expressed in forcible language; the doctrine 
orthodox, evangelical, "practical. We shall be surprised if these 
discourses are not reprinted by an English house." — C. H. 
Spur g eon. 

The First Thing in the World; or, The Primacy 

of Faith. Vellum paper covers $ .20 

Cheaper edition, popular vellum series 10 

"There was a fear lest the prominence given the exceeding 
beauty and umbrageousness of "Love" should overshadow the 
sister grace of "Faith," but Dr. Gordon has rescued us from the 
danger of forgetting that faith in Christ is the foundation of our 
Christian life." — Christian at Work. 

Chicago. Fleming 41. Revell Company, newtobk. 



Books of Illustration. 



For Pulpit and Platform; for Preachers and Teachers. 

Seed Corn for the Sower; or, Thoughts, Themes 
and Illustrations, for Pulpit and Platform and for 
Home Readings, by Rev. C. Perrin, Ph. D. i2mo., 

cloth $1.50 

Although no less than two hundred authors have been drawn 
upon to supply the material for this work, it is believed that the 
great mass of "illustrative matter will be found entirely new and 
fresh— embracing nearly 400 pages of original and carefully 
selected illustrative excerpts covering a wide range of subjects. 
"To teachers and all engaged in Bible instruction, it will 
prove a volume of great help and usefulness and furnish ready 
to their hand many a nail with which to fasten in a sure place 
the truths they may desire to drive home."— The Christian at 
Work. 

Feathers for Arrows; or, Illustrations for Preachers 
and Teachers, by Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon. 
i2mo., cloth $1.00 

"The work covers a wide range of subjects. The metaphors 
are always striking and frequently brilliant, while the truths 
that they illustrate are such as have always formed the staple 
of Mr. Spurgeon's discourses. A choicer collection of illustra- 
tions we do not know." — The Freeman. 

Spurgeon's Gems. Being Brilliant Passages from 
his Discourses. i2mo., cloth $1.00 

A series of earnest thoughts and graphic pictures, all of 
them revealing: the true greatness of the preacher's concep- 
tions, his individuality and strength. Gems of great brilliancy, 
which will make a permanent impression upon the mind of the 
reader. 

Gleanings Among the Sheaves, by Rev. C. H. 

Spurgeon. Cloth, gilt top $ .75 

"These extracts are quite Spurgeonic — racy, rich and rare, 
both as to style and matter; full of exquisite consolation, faith- 
ful advice, clear analogies, poetic touches, and glorious old 
gospel. We do not wonder that eight thousand copies were 
sold on the day of publication and trust that eight times eighty 
thousand will find their way to the religious public." — Weekly 
Review. 

Scripture Itself the Illustrator: A manual of illus- 
trations gathered from scriptural figures, phrases, 
types, derivations, chronology, texts, etc., by Rev. 
G. S. Bowes. i2tno., cloth $1.25 

Information and Illustrations for Preachers and 
Teachers. Helps gathered from facts, figures, anec- 
dotes and books, for sermons, lectures and ad- 
dresses, by Rev. G. S. Bowes. i2mo., cloth.. $1.25 

Chicago. Fleming H. Revell Company. n*w?op*. 



Books of Travel and Research 

Ten Years' Digging in Egypt, 1881-1891, by W. 

M. Flinders Petrie. With a map and 116 illustra- 
tions. i2tno., cloth $1.50 

"The book has a special interest in the confirmation and the 
illustration it affords as to the high condition of civilization 
existing in a land so intimately interwoven with Biblical history. 
The narrative is pleasantly written, and the illustrations are not 
only admirably executed, but greatly help us in realizing what 
they represent." — N. Y. Observer. 

"Mr. W. M. F. Petrie, the well-known Egyptologist, has pre- 
pared a concise popularization of the results of his scholarly 
labors — its clear and compact pages are those of a trustworthy 
authority — the story told is really fascinating." — 5. S. Times. 

The Ainu of Japan. The Religion, Superstitions- 
and General History of the Hairy Aborigines of 
Japan, by Rev. John Batchelor. With 80 illustra- 
tions. 8vo., cloth $1.50 

"The author has a subject seldom treated in our literature and 
he communicates his rather exclusive information in fascinating 
and instructive fashion. His style is very vivid." — Golden Rule. 
"The Ainu are the aborigines of Japan, and now number 
only some sixteen or seventeen thousand. This record of their 
character and customs is effectively given, and the text is sup- 
plemented by numerous engravings," — N. W. Christian Advo- 
cate. 

A Winter in North China, by Rev. T. M. Morris. 
With introduction by Rev. R. Glover, D. D., and a 

map. i2mo., cloth $1.50 

"Contains much matter of general interest, and many 
pleasant sketches of China and the Chinese. An intelligent, 
recent and grandly encouraging report." — The Independent. 

The Story of Uganda, and the Victoria Nyanza 
Mission. By S. G. Stock. With a map and illus- 
trations. i2mo., cloth $i-25 

"The Story of Mackay is given with fulness and power; 
there are added also the stories of the martyr Bishop Hanning- 
ton and his fateful journey, and of Bishops Parker and Tucker, 
of the other mission, together with a sketch of these missions 
under the brutal King Mwanga since Mackay' s untimely 
death." — The Golden Rule. 

The Fifth Gospel. The Land where Jesus Lived, 
By Rev. J. M. P. Otts, LL. D. With 4 maps. i2tno., 

cloth $1-25 

"Whatever other books one may have read on Palestine, he 
will find new pleasure and instruction from the perusal of this 
one." — Central Presbyterian. 

For list of "By=Paths of Bible Knowledge," see special 
catalogue. 

Complete list of Hissionary Books sent free on application. 

chtcago. Fleming H. Revell Company, new york. 



BOOKS FOR YOUNG HEN 

Moral Muscle and How to Use It, by Frederick 
Atkins. A Brotherly Chat with Young Men $ .50 

"This is positively the best book for young- men that we 
have seen. It looks the facts of young- men's lives full in the 
face, and proclaims the gospel of industry, perseverance, self- 
control, and manly Christianity. We can certify that no one 
will find it stupid. " — St. Andrew's Cross. 

First Battles and How to Fight Them, by F. A. 

Atkins. Friendly Chats with Young Men... $.50 
"It is true in its substance, attractive in its style, and ad- 
mirable in its spirit. I heartily commend this little volume." — 
Rev. John Hall, D.D. 

The Spiritual Athlete and How He Trains, by W. 

A. Bodell. Introduction by Rev.B. Fay Mills.. $ .50 
A work for young men, pithy, pointed and practical. 
"Its power and value lie in the consistent carrying out of 

the comparison between physical and spiritual training." — The 

Indepe?ident. 

Brave and True, by J. Thain Davidson. Talks 
to Young Men $ .50 

"This is one of the books the wide distribution of which 
can not be too greatly desired." — Presbyterian Journal. 

Thoroughness, by Dr. J. Thain Davidson. Talks 

to Young Men. i2mo., cloth $ .50 

"Dr. Davidson knows young men and how to talk to them. 

He is ever racy, fresh and practical and in this, his latest issue, 

no less so. We warmly commend the book to workers among 

young men." — The Christian. 

The Secret of Success; or Finger Posts on the 
Highway of Life, by John T. Dale. Introduction 
by Hon. John V. Farwell. 8vo., cloth $1.50 

"This volume is a perfect thesaurus of maxims and of 
inspiriting incidents relating to attainment. It is a book of 
counsels to young men and women who desire to achieve what 
their generation has a right to expect of them." — Golden Rule. 

Turn Over a New Leaf, and Other Words to Young 

People at School, by B. B. Comegys $-5° 

"These talks are on a great many every-day topics of great 
importance. They are treated so sensibly and so practically 
Ind with such a kindly spirit, that it would be well if a copy 
might be placed in the hands of every one of the young people 
of the land."— Hei aid and Presbyter. 

The Fall of the Staincliffes. Prize Story on the 
Evils of Gambling, by A. Colbeck. Paper, 
25 cents; cloth 75 

"It depicts in a clear, forcible way the terrible evils of intem- 
perance and of gambling in all its forms. It is not a 'goody 
goody' book but a good book." — Public Opinion. 

chioqo. Fleming H. Revell Company, new york. 



CHOICE GIFT BOOKS 



The Earthly Footprints of Our Risen Lord, 

Illumined. A continuous narrative of the Four 
Gospels according to The Revised Version, with 
introduction by Rev. John Hall, D. D. Illustrated 
by 113 full-page half-tone re-productions. Small 

4to, cloth, net $i-5o 

Gilt edge, with silk book mark, boxed, net, . . 2.00 
Full morocco, flexible, gilt edges, round cor- 
ners, boxed, net 3.75 

Pictures reflecting the best in sacred art from Raphael to 
the present day are scattered profusely through the book. 

"To many the life of the Christ will be a new book in this 
form. The very fact that this is not our usual method of reading 
the Word will give it a new reality." — Golden Rule. 

A Gift of Love, and Loving Greetings for 365 Days, 

by Rose Porter. Long i8mo. Parti-cloth $1.00 

White cloth, silver top, in box 1.25 

Decorated silk, silver top, in box 1.75 

44 'A Gift of IyOve' is the work of a loving heart. It contains 
a text of Scripture for every day of the year with the addition of 
an appropriate thought in poetry or prose all bearing on the 
theme of love. To use it day by day for a year thoughtfully and 
prayerfully, must result in a rich growth in love on the part of 
the user." — N. Y. Observer. 

Prayers from the Poets, by Martha Harger. i6mo., 

two colored cloth, gilt top $1.00 

Leatherette, boxed 1.50 

4 'This volume is admirable. The prayers are better suited to 
some of our moods than formal I,itanies, and are selected from 
excellent sources. The book will be a dear treasure to many 
hearts." — The Churchman. 

Poems by Frances Ridley Havergal. Author's 
edition complete. The only unabridged authorized 
edition published in America. i2mo., 880 pages, 

cloth, $2.00 

Beveled boards, full gilt 2.50 

Half white vellum, gilt top, uncut edges 2.50 

Nineteen Beautiful Years, By Frances B. Willard, 
or, Sketches of a Girl's Life, with preface by John 
G. Whittier. New and revised edition, i2mo., 

cloth $ .75 

"A very sweet and tender record of an exceptionally beauti- 
ful life."-; John G. Whittier. 

"The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life" may be had 
in several presentation styles. Send for list. 

Chicago Fleming H. Revell Company, new yoke. 



popular tMlum Scries. 



Chaste Paper Covers, 16mo, 8% pages, each 20c. 
May also be had with very choice hand-painted floral designs 
on covers, each 50c. 

f)0W tO become a Christian. Five Simple Talks. 
By Kev. Lyman Abbott, D.D. 

1. Disciples or Scholars. 2. Believers or Faithfu 
3. Followers or Soldiers. 4. Brethren or Members of the 
Household. 5. Saints or the Holy. 

XLbe JFOUt flBem By Kev. James Stalker, D. D., 

author of "The Life of Jesus Christ,' ' etc. 

1. The Man the World Sees. 2. The Man Seen by the 
Person Who Knows Him Best. 3. The Man Seen by Him- 
self. 4. The Man Whom God Sees. 

XLhe aftgbt of jfaitb anfc tbe Cost of Character* 

Talks to Young Men. By Rev. Theodore L. Cuy- 
ler, D.D. 

To those who have not yet become acquainted with Dr. 
Cuyler's original and brilliant productions, this booklet will 
serve as an acceptable introduction. 

1b0pe t The Last Thing in the World. By Rev. A. T. 
^Pierson, D.D. 

This brochure has been prepared to complete the series of 
articles on u The Triple Graces," to which Prof. Drummond 
and Dr. A. J. Gordon are contributors. 

Gbe 3f irst Zbing in tbe nmorlfc ; or, the Primacy 

of Faith. By Rev. A. J. Gordon, D.D. 

Dr. Gordon has rescued us from the danger of forgetting 
that faith in Christ is the foundation of our Christian life." 
— Record of Christian Work. 

Zhc .flftessage of Jeeua to dften of TOealtb* a 

Tract for the Times. By Rev. George E. Herron. 
Introduction by Rev. Josiah Strong. 

"Mr. Herron has put the law of Christ to all men, 
whether with wealth or without it — the law of self-sacrific- 
ing love — with a clearness and cogency, which demands for 
his paper this permanent form. "—Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D, 

©OWer trom On 1bigb: Do You Need It, What is 
It, Can You Get It ? By Rev. B. Fay Mills. 

" Earnest, cogent, bright, this brief discussion must appeal 
to all classes of readers. The mark it will make on mind 
and conscience will not soon fade away."— N, Y. Evanaelist. 



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